Posted on 09/14/2003 4:07:10 AM PDT by sarcasm
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:10:45 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON -- The Boy Scouts of America fought for years to establish a clear legal right to keep gays out of its ranks, and won a major Supreme Court case three years ago. But that policy has since proved costly to the Scouts -- a price that is escalating.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Perhaps United Way should send their money to NAMBLA -- that group seems to suit their ideology better.
"the Boy Scouts have been a part of Balboa Park for decades - way before the ACLU had even been hatched.
After the 1915 San Diego World's Fair in Balboa Park, the Santa Fe Railroad donated its Pueblo Indian Village to local Boy Scouts with approval by the city council. For 25 years, the Scouts used the Indian Village as a headquarters and recreation site free of charge.
During World War II, the military took possession of Balboa Park and the Boy Scouts launched their volunteer campaigns to help the war effort from a makeshift headquarters in a local theater.
At the end of the war, the San Diego City Council passed a resolution authorizing the Boy Scouts to take charge of several acres of land in Balboa Park. Through fundraising and volunteer work, a state-of-the-art swimming pool and 600-seat outdoor amphitheater were constructed. In 1949, the Boy Scouts Desert Pacific Council headquarters building was completed.
In 1957, parts of Balboa Park remained undeveloped, so the city council agreed to transfer additional property to the Boy Scouts for maintenance and operations. A 50-year lease was signed with a rental fee of one dollar per year. With nearly 16 acres of leased land, the Boy Scouts soon launched Camp Balboa.
Today, Camp Balboa accommodates up to 300 campers at a time, and it offers a variety of year-round programs. Each year, 12,000 Boy Scouts take part in day camps, weekend camps, and merit badge classes.
According to David Hodges, field director for the Desert Pacific Boy Scout Council, "The park is used by everybody. We run this portion of the park. We reserve it for outside groups and anybody's welcome to use it. We do all the upkeep of the property here, and we lease it from the city. All the maintenance, all the expenses, the landscaping, everything we take care of."
Groups other than the Boy Scouts utilize Camp Balboa and Balboa Park. Last week for example, the two-day San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Festival was held at Balboa Park. The Boy Scouts have spent millions of dollars developing and maintaining Balboa Park over the years, without burden to the city and its taxpayers.
Even if San Diego had given preferential treatment to the Boy Scouts, what harm does that do to society? Once upon a time, working with the Boy Scouts in city hall was a common courtesy. Today, such treatment is viewed by the ACLU and judges like Napoleon Jones as though the city had given special privileges to the KKK or the Taliban.
The Boy Scouts have contributed to our communities and improved our way of life. It is ironic that the ACLU is questioning the Scouts for practicing character and moral virtue on public lands, while the ACLU is occupying public courthouses around America, pulling down every vestige of decency in sight.
http://www.pointofview.net/ar_scouting.htm
Let's see if Free Republic can make a difference in a BIG WAY to the United Way. The hospital I work for does the extortion thing to it's employees and I'll mention the Homosexual v. Boyscout thing to the CEO and CFO of Catholic Hospital I work in.
I think that all of us drop hints to the bosses that by supporting the United Way, they are supporting Homosexual activities and destroying the Boy Scouts of America. In other words lets lay it on the line... do you back the homosexuals or the Boy Scouts..... if you pay the United Way you back the Gay Pride group.... Go to the newspapers in the area and state for a fact that you won't be giving to the United Way because of it's support of Gay/Homosexual attacks on the Boy Scouts of America. Try to find a news desk fax line and state the same.
I haven't given to the United Way in 9 years since the stink about the head of the United Way and his family were exposed as money grubbing charlatans. I'm sick of the way the corporate weasels use it as a "consensus building" employee extortion racket.
Screw the United Way - give DIRECTLY to the Scouts!
This story from the same people who have excoriated the Catholic Church for the last two years about harboring abusive priests? They can't seem to get their stories straight. Are they against abuse of young boys, or are they not? The Globe's past support of NAMBLA answers that question, but they are selective in it's application.
The United Way will be gone before the Boy Scouts of America will be.
As for finding the local Scout Council in your area just click 
Then let me say it for them. Gays can enroll in the BSA. What they cannot do is to avow their sexuality openly, especially to the kids. If they keep their private business private, without making a point of revealing their sexuality, then they can be in the BSA. But if they join and try to witness about their sexual orientation to the kids, they're out.
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