"You either s--k d--k or you do not s--k d--k, there is no in between."
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 ...
As others have pointed out, the building belongs to the Scouts, who built it in 1928 at their own expense. Despite the dollar-a-year ground rent, the BSA has maintained the Beaux Arts (which, incidentally, is a legitimate architectural-historical landmark) for the last 80 years. And it was the Scouts, not the city, who undertook and paid for its $2.7 million renovation in the late '90s.
The conduct of the Philly city council, and of its proudly out-of-the-closet ringleader, is beneath despicable.
They have patched roads for us, cleaned out the pond, cut brush for a short while however they do a lot of work with many hands. They spend the rest of the day hiking or fishing or doing whatever they do. There are boy scout Camps in our area, but they charge quite a bit of money. Our Scouts bring their own food and tents and porta potty facilities, and work for an hour or so, and otherwise it is free. This works great for them, and for us, and we have done it for years.
“suggest dismantling the building and selling off bricks”
I’ll buy one.
As an active Scouter in the midwest, I thank you for all you do to support the Scouts in your area. There are many people out there like you that just “do what needs to be done”...
Thank you....
Thanks! This form of help is painless, and as long as we live, our Scouts will never be given the boot!
Why is their stand referred to as a disciminatory policy instead of what it is...a moral policy.
City Councilman Darrell L. Clarke clearly has a disordered mind. And to think that Philadelphia was once a great city. It is this kind of warped and twisted thinking that will destroy this country.
Clarke and his ilk understand NOT risk or the pathology of STDs. If they understood they would know that they have a responsibility to protect the health and safety of our young men. Under the guise of "civil rights" these morons want to put our children at risk to unspeakable diseases and psychological disorders. Epidemiologists estimate that one out of two men who have sex with men will eventually become HIV positive. Men who begin to engage in sex with men at an earlier age are more likely to become HIV positive and to become HIV positive earlier. (Hessol, N., Lifson, A., O'Malley, P., Doll, L., Jaffe, H., Rutherford, G. (1989) Prevalence, incidence and progression of human immunodeficiency virus infection in homosexual and bisexual men in hepatitis B vaccine trials, 1978 - 1988. American Journal of Epidemiology. 130, 6: 1167 - 1175) (Hoover, D., Munoz, A., Carey, V., Chmiel, J., Taylor, J., Margolick, J., Kingsley, L., Vermund, S. (1991) Estimating the 1978 - 1990 and future spread of human Immunodeficiency virus type 1 in subgroups of homosexual men. American Journal of Epidemiology 134, 10: 1190 - 1205) (Morris, M., Dean, L. (1994) Effects of sexual behavior change on long-term human immunodeficiency virus prevalence among homosexual men. American Journal of Epidemiology. 140, 3: 217 - 32) The bacteria contacted during anal intercourse include Shigella, Entamoeba, Giardia (causes chronic diarrhea), and the bacteria that cause hepatitis A (severe liver damage which can kill), and hepatitis B. Of course, the mostly deadly of all, HIV, is more easily transmitted through anal sex. ("When Kids don’t Have a Straight Answer" [Departments: Health and Fitness]. NEAToday on-line.) A study revealed a dramatic increase in anal cancer among homosexual men. This increase is traced to the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually-transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer in women and is found in almost all HIV-positive homosexual men. (Report of study at annual meeting of American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, June 26, 2002.)
It is a sad state of affairs when idiots prevail. I would hope that the people of the city of Philadelphia would start home schooling so eventually the city can again be managed by sane, responsible officials.
"You either s--k d--k or you do not s--k d--k, there is no in between."
In re: connecting homosexuality with pederasty (more appropriate to boy scouts, who have a minimum age of ten and an average age of 14), the fact is, per capita, more homosexuals molest than heteros.
That said, I would not have my daughter in a girl scout organization that had adult males leading the sleepovers. I don’t like heterosexual pederasty, either.
To put homosexual adult men in charge and close quarters with a bunch of teenage boys in totally irresponsible. The Boy Scout policy is the correct one.
So I have heard.
OK bubba, what gubmint $ do the Boy Scouts get?
Filthadelphia was crap before and is more so now.
The Scouts will be around long after the PC queer rights butt-heads have been long gone.
That creakin ain’t the closet door opening is it?
“may” is better than “shall” in this case.
Yep, that’s the one. It seems the Boy Scouts could use this legal approach to buttress the agreement made in 1928 that the queer boosters are trying to renege on.
They get $199,999 worth of rent.
If it was another private organization, say the ACLU, or NAMBLA, that was getting free rent from the government, are you honestly saying that you'd be fine with it? Wouldn't you say that they're getting something valuable from the government, and that that a cash value could be applied to it? Or are you only okay with goverment handouts to private organizations that you agree with?
That creakin ain’t the closet door opening is it?
Ooh, you've caught me. Better call my wife of 18 years and let her know.
Of course, the "protesteth too much" thing might be applicable here, too. Are you sure you're not desperately trying to hide something?
If that worked, every longtime renter in America could take their landlord's property. The fact that the Scouts payed the dollar a year meant that they accepted that the city was the property's owner.
It did work - click on the link in Yorkie’s post #80.
Not to mention the fact that everyone seems pretty much in agreement that the Boulder case was a piece of absolute scumbaggery.
Philadelphia was already a sorry place, and it is determined to get worse any way that it can. God don’t like ugly, and Philadephia is an ugly place.
Funny thing about child molestation - it’s perpetrated mostly by gay people.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.