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Walking The Straight And Narrow: Performative Sexuality And The First Amendment After Hurley, Christine Yalda

Christine A. Yalda

This article looks at a US Supreme Court case, Hurley v GLIB (1995), to consider the United States Constitution’s First Amendment both as a tool and as a site for contesting hegemonic ideas about sexuality. In Hurley, the Court allowed Boston St Patrick’s-Evacuation Day Parade organizers to exclude a group of openly gay Irish-Americans (and their supporters) who wished to march in the annual parade. The parade organizers maintained that they were not excluding the gay group as such, but rather the pro-gay message. The Court accepted this argument, ostensibly on First Amendment grounds. I argue that the holding has …