Posted on 12/06/2007 11:04:30 AM PST by yorkie
For three years the Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America held its ground. It resisted the city’s request to change its discriminatory policy toward gay people despite threats that if it did not do so, the city would evict the group from a municipal building where the Scouts have resided practically rent free since 1928.
Hailed as the birthplace of the Boy Scouts, the Beaux Arts building is the seat of the seventh-largest chapter of the organization and the first of the more than 300 council service centers built by the Scouts around the country over the past century.
But over the years the fight between the city and the Scouts was about more than this grandiose structure in Center City.
Municipal officials said the clash stemmed from a duty to defend civil rights and an obligation to abide by a local law that bars taxpayer support for any group that discriminates. Boy Scout officials said it was about preserving their culture, protecting the right of private organizations to remain exclusive and defending traditions like requiring members to swear an oath of duty to God and prohibiting membership by anyone who is openly homosexual.
This week the Boy Scouts made their last stand and lost.
“At the end of the day, you can not be in a city-owned facility being subsidized by the taxpayers and not have language in your lease that talks about nondiscrimination,” said City Councilman Darrell L. Clarke, who represents the district where the building is located. “Negotiations are over.”
Mr. Clarke said talks ended this week when the deadline passed for the local chapter to change its policy; on June 1 the group will be evicted.
“Since we were founded, we believe that open homosexuality would be inconsistent with the values..
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The Scouts built the million dollar building. Tear it down if you can’t take it with you.
And no doubt the city will turn the property over to GLAAD.
Just proves there is too much city-owned facilities.
im getting sick of the few overtaking the many...
it will be a NAMBLA building before you know it.
The BSA should take away the building they built piece by piece.
So the prohibition on religious establishment permits the city to mandate that all persons bow to the religion of political correctness and check your moral principles at the door.
Yup. Demolish it or require the city to pay the fair value of the improvements on the land.
Now the way is cleared for the city council commies to turn the building over to the North American Man-Boy Love Association for their headquarters. Embrace your new gay order, Philadelphians.
This brings a new and perverse meaning to the “city of brotherly love.”
Apparently in Philadelphia good is evil and evil is good. Woe unto them.
“The last remaining Men” in Pennsylvania...
This is an unbelievable statement by a government employee. "You CANNOT...." Who made this guy God?
I think it’s sad that people equate pedophilia with homosexuality at this day in time. The BSA Headquarters should purchase the land from the city and finance a lease for the group that they can afford. Unfortunately, a lot of inner city kids will suffer and a beautiful landmark will be no more because of this.
Philadelphia stinks with shame today.
This building was built by the Scouts, it belongs to the Scouts, and they should take it with them - brick by brick.
If you're taking the government's money, you follow their rules.
Despite this, I have no doubt the scouts will continue to thrive and survive. I’m not so sure about Philly.
What are the chances of a gay group tolerating a straight republican at GLAAD? The boy Scouts as ruled by the SCOTUS has a right to free association. P!ss on the left.
For the moment.
There was a legal agreement for the use of the land.
Most legal agreements are not subject to one of the parties changing the conditions after the fact. I would love to see the Boy Scouts pursue this further and appeal.
How many existing agreements can be rendered useles by arbitrarily changing the rules?
Just pay fair market value and be done with it.
Amen. My favorite scripture for our times!
You deny that gay scoutmasters are a problem on overnight stays?
The Scouts’ prohibition goes beyong just molestation. It is also moral character.
This so much reminds me of the destruction of the Berlin Wall, and the sale of pieces of it as souveriers.
I would suggest dismantling the building and selling off bricks(?) or anything else that is separable to fund the construction of a new building that remains pervert-free.
another red banner day for dhimmicrats
My wife and I were discussing that last night, WRT the California statute on “discriminatory language” that would include the words “mother, father, husband, wife”.
Why is it that 1-2% of the population can be allowed to cause such grief to everyone else?
Not to put too fine a point on it, but there is a monumental difference between "taking" the government's money and simply not paying "tribute" to it.
Better yet, burn it down, with the city council in it.
The government changed the rules and wants to take their building (the rent is a nominal fee for the land, the Scouts pay tens of thousands on the building’s maintenence every year).
This is a politically correct policy change. It is a policy, and I’m not even sure it is a law.
There is no dissent to be tolerated. Homosexuality is not a sin because “we say so”. Next they could be prohibited by mentioning God.
At the time the contract was established, there was more tolerance for people of all faiths and the private acts of this council member were illegal.
As I say, they built it and should demolish it out of spite if the intolerant Left thinks they can steal a million dollar “palace”.
I suspect, however, that there might not be too many takers for the “Man-Boy Camping Club of America”
The city keeps punishing the wrong people on it's way further down the cesspool.
Liberals are seeking to criminalize conservativism. Thought crime is here and it is coming from the same sort of Stalinists that George Orwell saw ages ago.
Sounds exactly like what the homosexual Episcopal Church is trying to do with the Northern Virginia churches that left.
Philadelphia is wracked with crime and violence.
Yet its loser “leaders” spend time with this. Is it small wonder why the central cities are such a mess? You Democrats get what you vote for.
Does anybody use their freaking brains anymore in this country ?
Why don’t we hear more about single men seeking to be girl scout leaders for overnight visits?
Not too biased an opening to the newsstory is it?
I've been tracking this story (my son is a member of the Boy Scouts).
For the BSA to accept open homosexuals (especially in leadership positions) would mean the end of the organization.
The Boy Scouts of America is a private organization. My recommendation to them would be to purchase/build/maintain a meeting place of their own. This is too important an issue to compromise on.
'Pod.
According to the article, Councilman Darrell L. Clarke has pushed hard for this decision.
Mr. Clarke’s website is:
http:www.darrellclarke5thdistrict.com/ (with a pic and bio)
To contact him:
Email: darrell.clarke@phila.gov
Address: 484 City Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Phone: (215) 686-3442
Fax: (215) 686-1901
I’ll bet he would just love to get some early Valentines from FReepers. ;-)
Here’s another one:
John 15:18-19 (NIV)
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
I don't think people are doing that here.
It's about having moral standards and sticking to them.
ah... so there's no higher occurrence of pedophiles among homosexual men than among the general population?
Pull the other one and it plays "Jingle Bells".
This means that the city is terminating a lease with no anti-discrimination clause. Are there any other old leases with no anti-discrimination clause? If so, they must also be terminated. Otherwise, we may have a 14th amendment case here.
It would be funny if ACORN or GLAAD were leasing a building under such a lease. To see them evicted would be quite humorous.
“If you’re taking the government’s money, you follow their rules.”
In this case, it’s not quite that simple, the BSA built that building and developed the land at a time in the US where agreements were largely verbal with “..As long as you want to stay here...” as the binding in the agreement.
Now that Philly has decided that the BSA is immoral, and homosexuality is preferred, such quaint agreements become hammers to wield against the BSA.
To which I would say “fine”
If the people of Philly wonder “why” their town is swirling down the toilet, which I doubt they will, they can find the next group to blame.
The BSA will have to realize that their principles are not welcomed in a Philly and make arrangements for different housing and have -0- to do with the Philly Govt.
“The BSA Headquarters should purchase the land from the city”
I doubt if the City Council would agree to selling the land.
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