Ignoring the Dec 3 deadline set by the city to amend its membership policy, the Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America now faces eviction from its headquarters, a landmark city-owned building where the group has been paying a token sum of US$1 a year to lease the building since 1928.
The Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America has been paying a token sum of US$1 a year to lease historic headquarters since 1928
Hailed as the birthplace of the Boy Scouts, the Beaux Arts building is the first of the more than 300 council service centres built by the Scouts around the country over the past century.
The local chapter had resisted the city's request to change its discriminatory policy toward gay people requiring members to swear an oath of "duty to God" and prohibiting membership by anyone who is openly gay.
"Since we were founded, we believe that open homosexuality would be inconsistent with the values that we want to communicate with our leaders," said Gregg Shields, national spokesman for the Boy Scouts.
Although in 2000, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts being a private group has a first amendment right to refuse membership to gays, city solicitor Romulo Diaz was quoted as saying that the city will not subsidise that discrimination by passing on the costs to the people of Philadelphia."
City officials added that they have an obligation to abide by a local law that bars taxpayer support for any group that discriminates.
Councilman Darrell L. Clarke who represents the district where the building is located said, "At the end of the day, you can not be in a city-owned facility being subsidised by the taxpayers and not have language in your lease that talks about non-discrimination."
He said talks ended this week when the deadline passed for the group to change its policy; on June 1 the group will be evicted. The City Council voted 16-to-1 to authorise ending the lease on May 31.
In May 2003, a local scout who challenged the organisation's policies - after an openly gay scout from New Jersey was barred from serving as troop leader - by announcing on television that he was gay and that he was a devoted member of the organisation was promptly dismissed.
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So, in this case and context, I think the Scouts were justified in sticking to their guns, and allowing their ban to stay.
But.
Kudos to the local politicians, who've voted to kick out the Scouts from their old base. They're dead right - it would be entirely wrong for them to support a discriminatory group and its ongoing discriminations. Public/City funds are to be used in a secular manner at the very least, or to give equal aid to the range of local faiths.
Aiding a group that discriminates against a section of society goes against the very core of what it means to represent society, and run for office as a politician.
So. Scouts. Good that they stuck to their opinion, but there's a (deserved?) price to pay for them...
And the Queen's government has made it clear, on pain of having your goolies cut off, that it is wrong to discriminate against gay people.
Very true. But 100% nothing to do with the Scouts, unless there's some secret link that isn't widely known...!
Standing ovation for the eviction.
Are they absurd or what?I'll write it in capitals:
BADEN POWELL WAS GAY!!!!!
the founder of the boyscouts was a homo!Do you understand?Have u read any of his biographies???I did, please try Tim Jewell's book, which is considered the most accurate one.
Why in the world do you think he first came up with "boy" scouts, and why he sent letters about the beauty of "naked bodies" to his close friends?and why his wife looked like Peter Pan, and they never have a child?And his lover, Mclaren??shesh. i'm sick of this hypocrisy.
here's a link with info on it, and i add that several of his biographies clearly state the same:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baden-Powell%27s_sexual_orientation
this link does not mention his lover (who was his "best friend", and quite good looking), things behind his wedding, and neither does it mention what happened when the girl scouts were founded (it was like...a lesbian sex community and it ended up in court).
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