[Newspoetry] Invisible Hand Bitch-Slaps Boy Scouts

[Joe Futrelle]

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Scouts' Successful Ban on Gays Is Followed by Loss in Support

August 29, 2000
By  KATE ZERNIKE

In the two months since the United  States Supreme Court ruled that
the  Boy Scouts of America have a constitutional right to exclude
gays, corporate and governmental support for  the organization has
slipped markedly. 

 Chicago, San Francisco and San  Jose, Calif.,  have told local
Scout  troops that they can no longer use   parks, schools and
other municipal  sites. Companies like Chase Manhattan Bank and
Textron Inc., have  withdrawn hundreds of thousands of  dollars in
support to local and national scouting groups nationwide. Dozens of
United Ways from Massachusetts to San Francisco  have cut off 
money amounting to millions of dollars each year. 

 And  Connecticut, in what may   become a test case, has banned
contributions to the Scouts by state employees through a state-run
charity.  The state is also considering whether  to block the
Scouts from using public  campgrounds or buildings. 

 "It's a watershed issue," said C.  Joan Parker, assistant counsel
to  the  Connecticut Commission on Human  Rights and Opportunities,
which  must issue a ruling by Nov. 8 on  whether the Scouts violate
state antidiscrimination laws. 

 If the commission rules that the  group does violate those laws,
the  Boy Scouts would be  prevented from  using any public
facilities. 

 "We have to decide, Are we aiding  and abetting someone that
discriminates?" Ms. Parker said. "Clearly,   any public entity 
needs to have clean  hands." 

 Gregg Shields, a national spokesman for the Scouts, said the 
organization respected the right of private  companies to donate
only to groups  of their  choice. But the organization  is suing
the State of Connecticut to  restore state employees' ability to 
donate to the Scouts, and  Mr. Shields  said his group would  fight
to maintain access to public schools and  public places in other
states as well. 

 "The Boy Scouts of America since  1910 have taught traditional
family  values," Mr. Shields said. "We feel  that an avowed
homosexual isn't a  role model for those values." 

 For public and private officials  around the country, the problem
is a  complex and painful one. On the one  hand, they do not want
to cut off  valuable opportunities for the young  or run afoul of
First Amendment  principles. On the other hand, by  allowing a
group that bans gays to  use public facilities and supporting  it,
they violate their anti discrimination statutes. 

 The trim uniform of the Boy  Scouts has become almost a cherished 
national symbol. But at a time  when same-sex benefits, diversity 
training and nondiscrimination policies have become routine, some
companies and  organizations say the  Scouts' refusal to admit gays
has  come to seem almost un-American. 

 "Their position is, on the face of it,  in conflict with our
commitment  and  our values on diversity," said Jim  Finn, a
spokesman for Chase, which  had contributed about $200,000 annually
to the Boy Scouts until stopping  it last month. 

 The Supreme Court ruled in June  by a 5-to-4 vote that the
organization  had a constitutional right to exclude  gays because
opposition to homosexuality is part of the organization's 
"expressive message." 

 The decision overturned a ruling  last year by the New Jersey
Supreme Court that applied the state's  law against discrimination
in public  accommodations to require a New  Jersey Scout troop to
readmit a longtime member and assistant scoutmaster, James Dale,
whom it had  dismissed after learning he is gay. 

But the ruling did not address the  merits of the ban on gays, only 
whether the Boy Scouts is a  private  group, and so has  the right
to set its  own membership rules. 

 The Scouts, whose membership  has grown to 6.2 million, said that
the group's charter since 1910 had promoted "family values," and
that its  oath pledged  a  "morally straight"  life.     A
homosexual, the organization  said, is not the  proper role model
for  those values. 

While the decisions to withhold  support will not seriously  dent
the  $125 million raised annually by the  Scouts national
organization, the  growing effort to block local chapters from
meeting in places like public schools and state campgrounds  raises
practical problems for the  Scouts.       Since the ruling, many
public  bodies, charities and companies, including Merrill Lynch,
are beginning  the  discussion that has taken place in  Hartford.
The options, they say, are  equally unpleasant: hurting children 
who are benefiting from scouting, or  supporting a position they
find ethically untenable. 

 "Do we just cut off funding, and so  hundreds of kids in Hartford 
aren't  getting a program they so desperately need?" asked Susan
Dunn,  senior  vice president of the United Way of  the Capital
Area. "Our mission  is to  serve our community, especially 
children. But it's also in our  mission  that we don't
discriminate. That's  where it becomes difficult." 

 The American Civil Liberties  Union filed a lawsuit against the
city  of San Diego on Monday asking a  federal court to revoke a
50-year-old  agreement that lets the Scouts lease  18 acres of
parkland for $1 a year.  The lease is set to expire in 2007. 

 In Fall River, Mass., the executive  director of the local United
Way,  Bob  Horne, said  he was stunned at how  swiftly and strongly
his board had  acted to cut support to any Scout  troops that did
not sign a form saying  they would not endorse the Scouts'  ban on
gays. 

 "I thought that some people would  try to skirt the issue," Mr.
Horne  said. "But attendance was unbelievable, the best attendance
we've had  all year.     It could not have been a  more unanimous,
enthusiastic vote.  Obviously, there  was concern for the  kids,
but it all came down to we  really have an  obligation to do the 
right thing." 

 More than half the population of  Fall River, an old mill city,
has Portuguese immigrants in its background, and an influx of
Cambodians  has arrived in the past few years. 

 "With those growing groups," Mr.  Horne said, "people are being
more  aware of diversity  and doing things  right and being fair
and not setting  up separate views,  the idea that people are
people.     "People felt very   strongly that we should take this 
step."   Those who are eliminating or  reconsidering their support
are trying to respect, as the Supreme Court  affirmed, the Scouts'
right to set its  own mission. 

 And cutting off money or access to  one private group raises more
questions, officials say. Do those same  charities  then cut off
financing to  groups chartered to serve, say, Latinos? Do states
stop allowing Roman Catholic youth groups to use  public
campgrounds or school meeting rooms because the church does  not
ordain gays? 

 Among those debating whether to  end support, some are reluctant 
to do  so because they believe the local  Scout chapters do not
agree with the  ban on gays, which was put into  effect by the
national organization. 

 "Everyone knows their work with  kids is good, and it's a policy
that's  not commonly enforced," said Marty  Milkovic, executive
director of the   United Way of Northern Fairfield  County, in
Connecticut. 

 Like chapters in many other cities,  the Southeastern New England
United Way  in Providence, R.I., has said  it will require any
Scout council  to  sign a form saying it will not  discriminate.
But the Boy Scouts' Narragansett Council, which receives  $200,000
from the United Way, has  said it must abide by the national 
policy. And Mr. Shields, the spokesman for the national group, said
local  councils were not allowed to disavow  any part of  the
national charter, so  the councils are not allowed to sign  any
nondiscrimination policy that  would require them to admit gays. 
Troops that disobey the national  charter could face eviction. 

 Within the local councils, though,  there is increasing dissent
from the  policy. Scouting for All, a group  started by a
15-year-old scout in  California, that advocates opening up the 
organization to gays, held a national   protest day outside Boy
Scout  headquarters in several cities last  week. In Montclair,
N.J., parents in a  local Cub Scout troop are signing a   petition
saying they do not endorse  the national policy. 

 In New Milford, Conn., Gale Alexander said he and his wife were
torn  about whether to allow  their 9-year-old son to remain in the
Boy Scouts.  They like the skills and self-confidence the program
has taught but,  Mr. Alexander said, "I couldn't look  at my
friends if I couldn't stand up  and say this is  not right." 

 So as a compromise, the Alexanders are letting their son continue 
scouting, but they have decided to  become vocal in their 
opposition to  the policy. In conversations,  they  have discovered
that other parents  do not  agree with it, either. 

 "The idea that all the rank and file  is just fine with this is
just a  bunch of  malarkey," Mr. Alexander said.  "It's time now
for parents to  speak  up and say, I don't agree with it. It's 
time for people to start  fighting from  within." 

   


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Joe Futrelle
Editor-within-chief,
Newspoetry dot com