Anti-gay, racist incidents mar Mummers Parade
PHILADELPHIA >> Philadelphia’S incoming mayor and some organizers of the city’s annual New Year’s Day parade called for increased sensitivity on Saturday, a day after some participants mocked Caitlyn Jenner, were accused of harassing gays and painted their faces brown to portray Mexicans.
The 116-year-old Mummers Parade — often characterized as the city’s version of Mardi Gras — has faced annual criticism for its lack of diversity and racial insensitivity.
Critics found the activities of some amateur performance groups, called brigades, offensive again this year. One member dressed like Jenner, who won a 1976 Olympic gold medal in decathlon as Bruce Jenner before recently transitioning to a transgender woman. And a gay man who was out walking a dog accused the same group of assaulting him but did not file charges.
That brigade, Finnegan NYB, displayed signs of a Wheaties box picturing Bruce Jenner alongside a box of Froot Loops picturing Caitlyn Jenner. A man with that group was seen shouting expletives about gays in a video shot by New York Daily News editor Nick Kurczewski, Philly.com reported Saturday.
Philadelphia police and Mayor Michael Nutter’s office didn’t immediately respond to phone calls and emails Saturday, but Mayorelect Jim Kenney weighed in.
“It was bad. Hurtful to many Philadelphians. Our Trans Citizens do not deserve this type of satire/in- sult. #Berespectful,” Kenney tweeted.
Michael Inemer Sr., who identified himself as a captain of the Finnegan Mummers group, refused to apologize for the Jenner display, saying it was a parody in keeping with the parade’s history that includes crossdressing. He did apologize for the marcher who shouted against gays.
“I find myself, as do many, many members of Finnegan NYB, wholeheartedly apologizing for the abrasive, gross and disturbing action of one of our members who, unfortunately, took it upon himself to embarrass us all with his conduct and inexcusable and hurtful insults to the crowd at the end of the parade,” Inemer wrote.
The group had tweeted earlier: “One bad apple and blame the whole group. Typical of people out there. THAT individual has been dealt with in house. #LoveGays #HappyNewYear.”
But Inemer’s email
went further, saying the marcher who shouted the slurs would be “dealt with without any outside influence.”
John Holtz, 28, told reporters he was walking his parents’ dog with friends when a group of Mummers approached him Friday. He said one called him a gay slur before another punched him in the eye.
“They start giving me some kind of crap because I’m a big guy and I have this little fluffy dog,” Holtz said, referring to his parents’ Shih-Tzu. When Holtz went to confront the group about the comment, he said, another man “jumped in, clocked me in the face.”
Of ficers asked Holtz whether he wanted to file a police report, but he declined, not wanting to spend hours at the precinct with his friends on the holiday.
Holtz believes the men who accosted him were part of the same group satirizing Jenner.