Critic of Boy Scouts wants fliers banned

Portland (Maine) Press Herald ^ | 3 December 2003 | Tom Bell

[NewHampshireDuo]

After his 6-year-old son started attending school in Portland this fall, David Hilton discovered that being a parent these days means sorting through all the papers that get stuffed into children's backpacks at school.

For Hilton, though, the problem is not the quantity but the content. Some of the papers come from the Boy Scouts of America, a group that prohibits openly gay men from participating.

Hilton said the practice gives the impression that the school department endorses a discriminatory organization, and he is lobbying the School Committee to stop it. The committee will take up the issue tonight.

School Committee Chairman Jonathan Radtke said the fliers pose a dilemma. If school officials ban Boy Scout notices, he said, they will be legally required to ban notices from all other groups. That means Girl Scouts, Little League, soccer clubs, 4-H clubs, hockey clubs, Boys and Girls Clubs. All of those groups would lose a cheap and easy way to communicate with the city's children and their parents, he said.

"We have to have a policy that says everything goes out or nothing goes out," he said.

Most Maine schools allow Boy Scout notices to be sent home, said Duane Havard, assistant scout executive of the Pine Tree Council Boy Scouts of America. Kittery and Gorham are exceptions. They don't allow any groups to send fliers home if the groups aren't connected with the schools.

Kittery instituted the policy this fall without much controversy. Gorham's policy has nothing to do with Boy Scouts. Gorham officials believe that fliers from too many groups dilute the impact of notices from the schools, and that the extra notices were consuming too much staff time.

Hilton said it's a moral issue.

"Young gay and lesbian persons growing up in America . . . have a high rate of depression," he said. "To start in elementary school hearing this unwritten message that it's not OK to be gay, well, that's really upsetting."

City Councilor Peter O'Donnell supports Hilton's efforts. He said the fliers contradict the gay-rights ordinance that Portland voters approved in 1992.

The issue is similar to a controversy that occurred two years ago when some wanted to bar the Boy Scouts from using school facilities.

The School Committee voted to let the Scouts keep using facilities because members believed that banning just one group would be discriminatory. The committee's lawyers cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2000 that said the Boy Scouts is a private organization that has a legal right to exclude homosexuals. If the committee wanted to ban the Scouts, it would have to ban all other groups, the lawyers said.

At the same time the committee voted to let the Boy Scouts keep using school facilities, it decided to post notices stating that groups using the buildings do not represent the views of Portland public schools or their employees.

It appears the School Committee is moving toward the same legal solution for fliers.

Two weeks ago, committee member Kim Matthews, who heads the policy committee, proposed allowing fliers from youth and civic groups as long as the notices have a disclaimer saying the groups' views are not necessarily the views of the school system.

Hilton said the proposed disclaimer does not address his concerns. If a group discriminated against other groups, such as Jews, the School Committee would not let the group put fliers in children's backpacks, he said.

School Committee member James DiMillo, who said he agrees with everything the Boy Scouts do, said committee members want to add a disclaimer just to make themselves feel better. He opposes it.

"My problem with the whole thing is, why change it when we only have one complaint?" he said.

[NewHampshireDuo]

The Portland of today sure ain't the place I grew up in.

[demkicker]

I wish they'd drop a flier in the kids backpacks warning them to beware of faggot dads who want to snuff out organizations who don't openly endorse homos.

[Trampled by Lambs]

I bet this guy was too much of a mama's boy or sissy to be in the Boy Scouts when he was a kid..

[End Times Sentinel]

"To start in elementary school hearing this unwritten message that it's not OK to be gay, well, that's really upsetting."

 

 

Owl_Eagle

" WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH"

[Az Joe]

The Boy Scouts are a wonderful organization. When my son was 6 he joined the Tiger Scouts and went all the way through, attaining his Eagle Scout Badge in July of 2001.

I was struggeling financially then and the Scouts provided him with many opportuniies to travel, camp, scuba dive, learn about teamwork, loyalty and honor and see things and do things I never had the means to provide for him.

Many finanacially poor boys have been helped in many ways by this organization, many of these boys come from struggling, single parent families. And yet there are those who would destroy this venerable American institution on the alter of political correctness and an "anything goes" mentality.

I fight P.C. everywhere I find it and will do so until the day I die. To hell with gay men wanting to be scout leaders, to HELL with them.

[LiteKeeper]

INTREP - this is so stupid! What ever happened to the need to take responsibility and making choices. If you don't like something, don't go there. But don't tell the rest of us that we can be offered choices too.!!!!!!!

[bulldogs]

"I fight P.C. everywhere I find it and will do so until the day I die. To hell with gay men wanting to be scout leaders, to HELL with them."


I hear ya.

[cajun-jack]

I am a truckdriver and if any of you travel thru many states, i'm sure you have noticed that almost all rest areas now have 24/7 security.

Used to, they were trying to keep the "lizzards" (ladies of the night) out...nowadays the "ladies" can't get into the rest areas...the scurity agents are there to keep the queers out!!!!

I know it's not politically correct to call 'em queers, but how correct is it for one man to take another man's "member" into his mouth or somewhere else?

They used to get arrested if caught...charged with committing "law against nature" or lewd and lascivious act or something similar...they have come far enough with their agenda to have school systems and a lot of other places to recognize them.

The only time I would ever want to be associated with a queer, would be if I was going to re-decorate...they sure are good at that!!! lol