Posted on 06/01/2007 5:08:40 PM PDT by wagglebee
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, June 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Philadelphia City Council voted yesterday to end a nearly 80-year-old lease held by the Boy Scouts local branch over the group's adherence to a national policy banning actively homosexual leaders.
The ongoing dispute pitted the Scouts' Cradle of Liberty Council against homosexual activists over the organization's refusal to adopt an official policy welcoming homosexuals into leadership. The City, under pressure by activist groups, wants the Scouts to either alter the organization's policy or start paying market rent for the use of the historical Beaux Arts building, where the Scout headquarters has been housed since 1928 for a nominal rent.
The resolution permitting the city to end the lease was introduced unexpectedly, according to coverage by the Philadelphia Inquirer, and passed 16-1 with no debate. City councilors stated their hope that the resolution would generate leverage for the city by and open the door to talks resolving the dispute.
Homosexual activist organization Equality Advocates Pennsylvania pushed the city to act on the scout's lease, the Inquirer reported. Executive director Stacey Sobel said yesterday that the Boy Scouts should not be able to use taxpayers' dollars to discriminate against homosexuals.
Scouts take an oath of duty to God as part of their membership, and actively homosexual individuals are not permitted as leaders. Although the Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that as a private organization, scouts could restrict homosexuals from leadership, scout groups have faced opposition from local officials revoking privileges where they have refused to alter policy based on the demands of homosexual activists.
The American Family Association of Pennsylvania said the city was caving to the pressure of homosexual activists, in a press release earlier today.
"With an alarming number of children facing violent deaths on the streets of Philadelphia, the city's answer is to target one of the few organizations that offer purpose and meaning to these children. Of the 64,000 members the Cradle of Liberty Scout Council serves, 40,000 are in Philadelphia alone," said Diane Gramley, president of the AFA.
"The Scouts' policy banning open homosexual leaders is the right policy. Would the parents of Girl Scouts want a man to be their daughter's Scout leader? No and neither do parents want a man who is sexually attracted to other males to be Boy Scout leaders. Common sense should prevail here, but it's not."
"Efforts to appease never work. Homosexual activists want a pro-gay policy expressly stating that the Cradle of Liberty Scout Council will accept open homosexuals. They are not concerned with the well-being of the children of Philadelphia and surrounding counties, but instead choose to use them in an effort to make an example out of the Boy Scouts," Gramley said.
To respectfully express concerns to the Philadelphia City Council
Council Chair Anna C. Verna
City Hall, Room 405
Philadelphia, PA 19107-3290
(215) 686-3412, (215) 686-3413
FAX: (215) 686-1932
Vice-Chair Jannie L. Blackwell
City Hall, Room 408
Philadelphia, PA 19107-3290
(215) 686-3418, (215) 686-3419
FAX: (215) 686-1933
Email:
http://www.phila.gov/citycouncil/blackwell/feedback.html
But I'm sure it's quite alright to use tax dollars to force homosexuality on children.
Freepmail wagglebee or little jeremiah to subscribe or unsubscribe from the homosexual agenda or moral absolutes ping lists.
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Philedelphia is in breach of contract.
Maybe it is time to construct a monument of a boy scout leader performing fellatio on a little boy. Those bastards are beneath contempt.
actually men can be girl socut leaders (with a female assistant or co leader) and women can be boy scout leaders (many pack and den leaders here are women)
The city council is just reflecting the viewpoint of those who elected it. The responsible party for this mess is the voters.
I suppose I should have figured that there was a Boy Scout pinglist, but I didn’t know who had it.
More evidence that this nation is circling the toilet bowl.
Something similar happened in San Diego.
“Institutionalized homophobia in the Scouts or in church or school is the cruelest of all,” said Ian McKellan, the actor who played Gandolf in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, in an appearance for the group. “It makes life miserable for young gay people and it misleads their peers with regard to the ‘truth’ about gay people – that they are remarkably similar to the rest.”
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46500
Pervs
The dead have no price to pay. The city is so corrupt, democracy has no chance.
And nevermind the fact that the men who perve and molest boys are all gay men. Let's just all do a collective ignore and pretend that's not a fact.
FAGGIES WIN!!
(In a pig’s eye)
):^(
City of Brotherly LOVE.
Harry Knowles, of Aintitcoolnews.com the fanboy movie hype site, said that Ian McKellan took delight in having boys seek his attention as the actor who played a major role in adaptations of two major fanboy franchises (Lord of the Rings and X-Men).
Keep the vipers at bay.
Why the requirement for the female assistant or co-leader? That’s sexist. Unless there is reason to be concerned...
Philadelphia is a rotting corpse.
Scouting isn’t about sex. They should ban overtly lewd heterosexuals also. If the details of the scoutmaster’s orientation is so important to him that he has to proclaim it, he shouldn’t be a scoutmaster.
The “voters” are chronically un-employable welfare saps. The only thing they vote for is more give-aways.
Philadelphia is dead, dead, dead.
That is why most councils are smart enough to own their land and headquarters usually by donation then when things get tight and land prices have skyrocketed they sell for all the market will bear. Think of the appreciation since 1928!
http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=158756
Above is my post on the Scouter forum discussing this.
There is and I maintain it. Would you like on it?
Independence Hall needs to be preserved also.
Please. I have no real interest in the Boy Scouts per se, but I am extremely concerned about how the left is trying to destroy them and their mission.
Done
Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Instead of the ‘Gay Scounts’ how about the “Rump Rangers”?
:-)
dvwjr
Philadelphia disagrees.
Scouting is about sex.
Keeping your sons safe from those homosexuals seeking some private time with young nubile boys just isn’t something they find acceptible.
>>The resolution ... passed 16-1 with no debate. City councilors stated their hope that the resolution would generate leverage for the city by and open the door to talks resolving the dispute.<<
First of all, this sentence makes no sense. Would generate leverage for the city by and open the door? What?
Second, I see how they want these talks about resolving the dispute to end: that the Boy Scouts capituate to all demands by the Gay Mafia.
The world has turned completely upside down. It amazes me to no end. To simply pick up a 19th to early 20th-century novel or autobiography of the likes of Henry James or Edith Wharton all too quickly informs you how dramatically our society has decayed.
This really burns me up. This is our council. It was formed when the Philadelphia Council was merged with the Valley Forge Council, creating the Cradle of Liberty Council. COL Council serves youngsters from the inner city as well as the suburbs. When the United Way of SE Pennsylvania cut funding to the COL Council of BSA, it had a huge impact on support of inner city youth. Brilliant, just brilliant. I hope this can be fought successfully. I’d love to see some Eagle Scout lawyers donate some time to help with the battle.
Fortunately the great majority of GS troops operate pretty traditionally with the support of a great many traditional minded volunteers at the grassroots level and pay only polite lip service (if that) to the rampant liberalism among the paid employees at national and council
The reason for requiring a GS troop to have at least an adult female to be co leader with a male leader are self evident to most people. Additionally men (leaders or Dad chaperons) are not permitted to share accommodations or bathroom facilities with girls on overnight trips.
Now that the elected officals are handleing important business, somewhere in the vast distance future they’ll do something about all the murders.
Really.
A church will certainly let them lease space on the cheap. And good riddance to the city! Ptttthhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeee!
Sounds like Merlyn is on the side of the Mo’s.
I'm sure that convicted felons feel the same way about their debarment from holding public office.
I certainly feel put upon, that I am not allowed to join the Red Hats or attend Mills College or use the ladies' room when there's a big line at the men's room.
I feel a loud whiiiiiiiinnnnne coming on!
“Good riddance” is the wrong attitude. This withdrawal of public support from the Boy Scouts is part of a planned campaign to marginalize social conservatives of all kinds, to drive them into churches, then into provate homes, then into jail and prison. Running and hiding is no answer. We have to fight these people every inch of the way. As for the recommendation that we state our concerns “respectfully” to this Rat-controlled City Council, I’d suggest that respectful behavior has done little for us. It’s time for some serious political warfare.
You don’t understand. To them, this IS important. And they’re right. It’s part of a campaign to turn conservatives into second-class citizens — into the new n-—ers of America. Believe it, Chief.
The Philadelphia City Council is rather...intolerant.
As usual, Canada is ahead of the curve and the Times is all over it
Canadian Scouts Give Blessing to First Gay Troop
By MAGGIE FARLEY, NY Times November 20, 1999
TORONTO -- The directors of Scouts Canada were a bit puzzled by the application to charter Toronto's 129th Scout troop: In the boxes declaring "male" or "female," some members had checked both.
But true to their motto, the Scouts were prepared for anything. Late last month, they officially approved North America's first gay Scout troop. "To us, it's just like another one of our troops that addresses the needs of a community," said Scott Morris, a spokesman for Scouts Canada. "We have a Cantonese troop on the West Coast, French-speaking troops in Quebec and special troops for Mormons."
The new troop is limited to members ages 18 to 26; unlike the United States, Canada has adult-only troops, called Rovers. Troop 129 is open to gays and heterosexuals, and 12 people have signed on so far. All have identified themselves as gay or transgender. Thanks to a coeducational policy introduced by Scouts Canada last year, seven members are women.
They'll do traditional scouting activities, with special attention to serving the gay and lesbian community: camping, service projects and Christmas caroling at a local AIDS hospice. "People keep asking me, 'Why?' " said Bonte Minnema, a gay University of Toronto senior and boyhood Scout who founded the new troop. "My answer is, 'Why not?' No one asks why straight people get together. When young people are coming out, it's important for them to have empowering, skill-building groups like the Scouts."
Minnema said he has received calls from teens asking if he can start a troop for 14- to 17-year-olds who are gay or questioning their sexual orientation, as well as from gay and lesbian parents seeking a tolerant environment for their children. Morris said Scouts Canada would consider such an application.
The reaction in Canada so far to the gay troop has been "positive to neutral," Morris said. "People got much more angry about girls joining the Scouts than about gays and lesbians."
Some groups split off in protest of the coed policy but not so far in reaction to the formation of the new Toronto troop. Canada is, after all, a country where the feeling is more "live and let live" than "don't ask, don't tell." There are gays serving openly in the military, equal benefits in most provinces for same-sex partners, gay churches and an alternative gay high school here. And Canada has no policy excluding gay Scout leaders.
That's a big difference from the United States, where the Scout Oath says all Boy Scouts should do their "duty to God" and be "morally straight" -- elements that national Scout officials argue are incompatible with homosexuality.
But the Scout Law also says a good Scout "seeks to understand others" and "respects those with ideas and customs other than his own." And so, the issue of homosexuals in the Boy Scouts of America has split the organization, divided its sponsoring churches and resulted in lawsuits. One case, in which the organization is appealing a New Jersey court decision that gay men can't be banned from being Scout leaders, is before the US Supreme Court.
Although all Scout troops fall under an umbrella of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, there is no direct affiliation between the Canadian and US groups. But for Toronto's Troop 129, the only complaints have come from south of the border: A radical preacher from Kansas, the Rev. Fred Phelps, threatened to burn the Canadian flag in protest in front of the Scouts Canada headquarters here last Monday. The Scouts called Canadian immigration officials to see if he could be banned from crossing the border under this country's hate crimes law. Phelps never showed up.
That's not to say there's no homophobia in Canada, Minnema says. "But Canada is a much more subtle country," he said. Minnema was a Scout in a small country town from the time he was 5 years old until he earned the rank of Chief Scout at 13, a level similar to an Eagle Scout in the US That was about the time he realized he had no interest in girls and was perhaps, he said, "a bit different" from the rest of the guys. Others were beginning to realize it too.
"There was the usual name-calling and homophobic behavior," he said. "I wish there was a gay troop then." He left rural Ontario to attend college in Toronto and has become an activist in Canada's most multiethnic, cosmopolitan city. In between classes and exams, he sits on the board of the alternative high school, is active at the Christos Metropolitan Community Church, which has agreed to sponsor the troop, and works with a gay youth hotline that receives about 400 calls a month.
His efforts to educate people about issues of sexual orientation have focused on Toronto. But after news of his troop spread across the country, he realized that it was having an effect on rural enclaves like his hometown that perhaps most need troops like his. The first clue? Minnema's former scoutmaster recognized him on television and sent him a congratulatory note. "That," he said, "was pretty great."
Perhaps you misunderstand me Ca.Pat.
The city of Philadelphia, where I was born, a once beautiful city of families and neighborhoods is now a rats nest of crime.
It is a tragedy.
I say good riddance to the city government not to the boy scouts. A bunch of commie loosers and nothing more. It is better that the boy scouts shake the dust off their boots and get away from their influence asap.
And nevermind the fact that the men who perve and molest boys are all gay men. Let’s just all do a collective ignore and pretend that’s not a fact.
What? I think that is not true. There are plenty of married men who mess around with little boys and look at all the women who are molesting young boys now a days. I don’t think anyone would doubt your post had you said most are gay men or something like that.
I understand perfectly well. You weren’t attacking the Scouts, but saying the city government is so awful that the Scouts shouldn’t want a free site from them. That depends on whether they’re being “influenced” by the city government. If they are, then yes, better there should be no connection. But if not, they may as well have the free space. Better to be in the place where they’ve been for nearly 80 years, with its memories, sense of continuity, and prestige. The liberals want to drive us from our accustomed places, and from any recognition by public authority, for a reason. It’s called marginalization, or ghettoization, or, if you prefer, psychological warfare. There is a reason why they do these things. These people are masters of political abuse, and we should ALWAYS resist it. I have never believed in shrugging off any defeat. We should always try to win, no matter what, and never take NO for an answer and saying “oh well, it’s for the best.” That’s called loserhood. Never taking “no” for an answer, never shrugging off (i.e., accepting) a defeat is how the left wins, and I think it’s our best hope for winning. As my brother once said about another left-wing city government, “I’m tired of being somebody’s bytch.” Think about it.
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