The permit application for a “Straight Pride Parade” in downtown Boston has been approved despite mounting backlash from LGBTQ advocates, officials confirmed Wednesday.
The parade, which is set to take place on Aug. 31, will start at Copley Square and conclude at City Hall. Officials confirmed that the organizers’ public event application had been approved, but that Mayor Martin J. Walsh would not be attending, The Boston Globe reported.
“We just had a great meeting at city hall with a bunch of wonderful professionals who have assured us our date of Aug. 31,” John Hugo, president of Super Happy Fun America, which is organizing the parade, said at a press conference Wednesday.
“We will have the parade, and it’s going to be a great time,” he said. “We invite anyone who wants to come, as long as they respect each other.”
Mr. Hugo said the date is “etched in stone,” but there are still a few “tiny formalities” that need to be ironed out.
Former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos will serve as the parade’s grand marshal, he added.
Despite the controversy surrounding the name of the event, Mr. Hugo insisted his group is not anti-LGBTQ.
“We’re not antigay, we’re pro-straight. … We’re a sexual orientation advocacy group, and we’re a young civil rights movement,” he said at the press conference, The Globe reported. “We just want to have our own celebration just like everybody else has a right to. All people from all communities are welcome, so long as they show mutual respect.”
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