Parade rejects Minuteman entry

Group founder Gilchrist says he’ll sue for right to march on Patriots Day.The Minuteman Project founder declared war this week on the Laguna Beach Patriots Day Parade Assn.

James Gilchrist, founder of the group that organizes protests against illegal immigrants, said Thursday that he plans to sue the association, which denied the Minuteman entry into the parade, scheduled for March 4.

“The parade association voted overwhelmingly at a special meeting Monday to deny the Minuteman application,” said association vice president and spokesman Charles Quilter III.

“We have the right to refuse entry to any group that is not in compliance with our bylaws, according to a federal court decision in 1993.”

Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider said the decision was entirely up to parade association, which is independent from the city.

“Our attorneys will file a complaint at 11 a.m. today, I believe in Superior Court in Santa Ana,” Gilchrist said Friday. “I think the legal terminology is viewpoint discrimination. I am not savvy with [legal] precedents and I don’t known if they apply here, but we will test that in court.”

Quilter said the association felt that Minuteman goals were political and not consistent with the association’s goals.

“We have the parade to foster love of country and community and to bring our diverse community together,” Quilter said.

Gilchrest took his case to the media, first on a talk show aired last week on radio station KFI and then on the Bill O’Reilly television show Monday night.

E-mail and telephone calls to Quilter began almost immediately after the radio show.

“About half of them were blatantly racist,” Quilter said.

“Traitor,” one anonymous caller said, Quilter reported.

“Sir,” Quilter replied, “I am a [retired] colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps who was been privileged to serve his country in four wars.”

The next thing Quilter heard was a dial tone.

“We are not asking for the exclusion of other groups with political, religious or social agendas,” Gilchrist said. “In fact, we laud them -- we are a big First Amendment gang. We just want to be included.”

Parade bylaws, in effect for more than 25 years, prohibit religious and political entries.

Participants in a peace vigil conducted Saturday mornings at Main Beach have marched in the parade in earlier years but were warned not to carry overtly political signs.

“Everybody is in favor of peace,” Quilter said.

Parade officials have also accepted an entry from Bahai.

“It is a dance troupe, not a religious entry,” Quilter said. “We also have had a parochial school marching band.”

The first parade was held on Feb. 22, 1967, the fruition of a dream of the late Emily Ross to have an event that would instill in the city’s youth “a love of country and respect for the flag.” Ross was supported in her quest by the Patience Wright Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, to which she belonged, Laguna Beach Exchange Club President Roy Marcom Jr. and club members.

Each year, the parade association honors a patriot, citizen, junior citizens and a grand marshal.

Quilter was honored as patriot of the year in 1993 after he returned from the Persian Gulf.

About 100 entries participate in the parade annually, mostly civic and school organizations.

The parade association’s special meeting on Monday was held to review the denial of the Minuteman entry, which was first pronounced shortly after the application was delivered Jan. 18 to the home of an association member.

Jan. 20 was the deadline to file.

The application -- signed by Laguna Beach resident George Riviere on behalf of the Minuteman Project -- had been requested by a different group, identified as the Women’s Bunco Group, an association member said.

Riviere, his wife Eileen Garcia, and Gilchrist have appeared at City Council meetings protesting the job center on Laguna Canyon Road.

“I have attended one council meeting and protested across the street from the [job center] three times in the last year and a half,” said Gilchrist.

Protesters characterize the center as a haven for illegal immigrants, although people of any ethnic or national background may look for jobs there.

The Minuteman Project was formed in 2005, the same year that Gilchrist ran unsuccessfully for Congress.

“It is well-known political group,” Quilter said. “And Gilchrist continues to have political aspirations, according to a statement he made after the election. The issue the group raises is important, but it is political and has nothing to do with a small-town parade.”

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