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 ...
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.
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.
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