Indecent parades: One down, one to go, according to critics

As regularly as heartburn after a pepper and egg sandwich, the e-mails would start arriving.

Every year they would begin bubbling up early on Monday morning after the South Side St. Patrick's parade. And then a few months later, another round of e-mails would regurgitate on the Monday after Chicago's Gay Pride parade.

The e-mails from irate TV viewers and from readers of this column wanted to know why I didn't investigate the "public indecencies" that were allowed to take place before, during and after each of the notorious events.

Indeed, year after year, both parades featured behavior by some participants and spectators that would certainly have resulted in their arrests had it occurred any other time.

In normal, non-parade times, public drunkenness, consumption of open liquor, street corner potty-stops, near-nudity and simulated sex acts on the sidewalk would likely draw the attention of merchants and residents. They would then call 911 and the miscreants would be swept away by Chicago Police and charged with disorderly conduct or some other blanket charge that allows them to sober up.

If you don't believe that such behavior wouldn't be tolerated, just keep your eyes open this week when International Olympic Committee officials are in Chicago for an "evaluation visit." I would suggest not even dropping a gum wrapper on the street if you want to avoid a police encounter.

Of course, the e-mailers who have complained over the years about aberrant conduct being tolerated (if not encouraged) during the South Side Irish Parade and the Gay Pride Parade are correct. For the most part, authorities have overlooked illegal conduct at both the Irish and the gay events, although in recent years police have made some arrests at the South Side parade that has come to draw a largely uncontrollable 300,000 people.

Some celebrants trash Western Avenue, the stores and homes nearby and couldn't care less about what began in 1979 as "a celebration of faith, family and heritage."

So, last week, the organizers of the South Side parade canceled it for next year, stating that "the sheer volume has become more than the neighborhood can reasonably accommodate. With these numbers comes a collection of issues that strain both the host community and those individuals charged with effectively managing the crowds. Additionally, the amount of resources required to launch the event has become overwhelming to the community."

The gay parade is a beast of a different sort, especially for the politicians who court gay voters and the dozens of elected officials who take part in the festivities by riding on floats and wearing rainbow sashes while avoiding the sideshows.

For years, leaders of the Illinois Family Institute have tried to get Chicago Police officials to crack down on what they see as illegal behavior that occurs during the gay parade.

Before last June's parade up Halsted Street through what is known as "Boy's Town," the institute stated that, "If this year's Gay Pride Parade follows tradition, Chicago Police will look the other way as lewd and obscene sexual behavior goes on along the parade route and on the parade floats themselves. Illinois Family Institute is asking concerned parents to call Chicago Police and demand they enforce decency laws Sunday afternoon in downtown Chicago."

The Family Institute, a nonprofit group that lobbies to "advance public policy initiatives consistent with Judeo-Christian teachings and traditions, educating citizens so that they can better influence their local communities and the state" asks every year before the gay parade whether "pro-family" Democratic lawmakers will push for decency law enforcement during the event.

And every Monday, when the event comes off with few arrests (other than an occasional unruly protester), the e-mails start arriving to my laptop.

Inevitably, the most concise complaint comes from morality activist Arlene Sawicki of South Barrington. Since the Irish parade was shelved last week, Sawicki has taken advantage with a fresh campaign to have this year's Gay Pride Parade on June 28 canceled for similar reasons.

"Every June the Chicago Gay Pride Parade occurs in their Broadway/Belmont neighborhood with the same huge crowds and deviant public acts as were displayed at the South Side St. Patrick's Day Parade," she writes on a blog site headlined " St. Patrick's Day/Gay Parade ... what's the difference?"

"There are displays of simulated sex acts, solicitation, urination on the sidewalk, obscene language, drugged or drunk observers, unruly crowds - as children who are present watch the debauchery," states Sawicki. "This all takes place with Chicago's Best present and overlooking every Public Decency law on the book - as they turn a blind eye and look on with approval!

"It would be nice if the homosexual community would get in touch with their latent sense of public decency, revisit their duty to respect the law, be sensitive to the innocence of the children present, and cancel their "pride" parade ... for good."

Don't count on that happening. With state and local elections coming in 2010 and 2011, I expect the Gay Pride Parade to kick off at noon on June 28 as scheduled, with all the trimmings.

And on June 29, I expect my mailbox will be full.

• Chuck Goudie, whose column appears each Monday, is the chief investigative reporter at ABC 7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached by email at chuckgoudie@gmail.com