The Battle over the Boy Scouts
FERRARA, PETER
The Battle over the Boy Scouts A year after the Supreme Court decision, it's a standoff. BY PETER FERRARA JUNE 28 WILL MARK the one-year anniversary of the Boy Scouts' victory in the landmark...
...When California Democrat Lynn Woolsey introduced a bill in Congress last September to rescind the national charter of the Boy Scouts, the House voted it down in lopsided fashion, 362-12...
...But the Boy Scouts and their allies have successfully fought back...
...In addition, the local United Way chapters that have cut off funding for the Scouts represent only about 3 percent of the 1,400 local United Way chapters nationwide...
...After the local United Way in West Palm Beach, Florida, cut off the Scouts from a share of general funds, contributions to the Scouts through the United Way tripled...
...By an overwhelming margin of 61 percent to 17 percent, the public believes the Scouts should be free to set their own policy on the issue...
...If the Boy Scouts are engaged in such discrimination and are "akin to a hate group" as a result, then so are the Catholic Church, traditional Protestantism, and Orthodox Judaism...
...San Francisco, Minneapolis, Dade County, Florida, Santa Barbara, California, and Framingham, Massachusetts, have halted all Scouting recruitment in their schools and even prohibited the distribution of Scout literature...
...This anti-Scout campaign is having an impact...
...This ruling now forms the basis of a recent amendment to the current education bill, sponsored by senator Jesse Helms and Ten nessee congressman Van Hilleary, that would deny federal funding to school districts that forbid the Boy Scouts from using school facilities...
...Those who disagree with the Scouts would, of course, be free to criticize them...
...They wish to brand those views as socially unacceptable discrimination...
...Dade County, under public pressure, was forced to back off its ban on Scouting in public schools...
...Instead, Baca criticized the council's action...
...In addition, 32 local United Way chapters in 15 states have cut off their funding of local Scout groups...
...The surprising result is that a year into the siege, the Scouts are more than holding their own...
...and the Knight Ridder newspaper chain have cut off all contributions to the group...
...In that case, the Court ruled that the Boy Scouts could dismiss an adult troop leader who had openly declared his homosexuality and become a gay activist, contrary to the teachings and principles of the Boy Scouts...
...Some religious groups who think the Boy Scouts are too secular started their own religious scouting groups years ago...
...In San Diego, the ACLU is suing the city to evict the Scouts from Balboa Park, where they built and have long operated excellent camping and recreational facilities open to the public...
...And even in these jurisdictions, when donors specify that their funds should go to the Scouts, the United Way still must direct that money to the Scouts...
...In Royal Oaks, Michigan, citizens defeated by 68 percent to 32 percent an ordinance banning discrimination against homosexuals, based in part on arguments from opponents that such ordinances had been used against the Boy Scouts...
...In Florida, the Broward County school board evicted the Scouts from all school buildings...
...Levi Strauss & Co...
...That cannot be achieved by liberal means, because it is not a liberal goal...
...In Los Angeles, county sheriff Lee Baca refused to end his office's sponsorship of Scout activities, after hearing protests of the city council's decision from local supporters, Scout alumni, and radio talk shows...
...The true target of the anti-Scout groups is not the Scouts, but the traditional moral views they espouse...
...In a liberal society, the Boy Scouts should be free to decide whom they want as adult leaders and what moral messages they want to communicate...
...The Scouts may have a legal right to their policy on gays, but these groups want Peter Ferrara is associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law and executive director of the American Civil Rights Union...
...The Court held that the constitutional right to freedom of association protected the Scouts' freedom to choose their own leaders, and the messages those leaders would send by their own personal example...
...A Florida court reversed the Broward County school board's eviction of the Scouts, holding that once schools made their facilities available to community groups under generally established rules, they could not withhold access to those facilities based on a group's views...
...This tally merely reflects public opinion...
...A recent national Portrait of America poll found that 75 percent of the public held a favorable view of the Boy Scouts, versus 11 percent unfavorable...
...The Portland police department, under pressure from the city's mayor, dropped its sponsorship of Scout Explorer posts...
...Which leads to the question: If the Left wins this cultural battle over the Scouts, what's next...
...There is a model for such an approach...
...But a more liberal-minded response would be to start their own competing scouting organization...
...The Los Angeles city council voted unanimously to end police sponsorship of Scout activities and stop free use of meeting rooms in city facilities...
...But there is something more fundamental at stake here, which explains why our modern "liberals" have chosen instead a frontal attack on the Boy Scouts...
...They could even organize a private-sector boycott of the Scouts if they wanted...
...In response to the Dale decision, liberal and left-wing activist organizations began a nationwide campaign to ostracize and isolate the Scouts...
...But today, the movement advocates the very different proposition that the power of government should be used to force everyone to approve of homosexual conduct, morally and socially...
...In some instances, it turns out, this has actually increased donations, since many donors who once gave general contributions now specifically designate that their funds go only to the Boy Scouts...
...It began by arguing that adults should be free to do what they choose in the privacy of their own bedrooms, without government interference...
...As with many court decisions, this was not the end but just the beginning of a culture war...
...the rest of society to ostracize them if they continue to exercise that right...
...Others who consider the regular Scouts militaristic and too hierarchical have started competing groups...
...After hearing of the Scouts' position on openly gay adult leaders, 36 percent viewed the Scouts more favorably and 28 percent less favorably...
...In Duluth, Minnesota, Scout United Way funds increased by 20 percent after the general fund cutoff...
...The New York City school board has barred city schools from sponsoring Scout activities...
...This attitude was best expressed by the New York Times, which labeled the Scouts as "something akin to a hate group" because they will not retain openly gay Scoutmasters...
...Indeed, contributions nationwide have increased since the Supreme Court decision in Dale, and membership, at 6.2 million boys, is 20 percent higher than in 1990...
...BY PETER FERRARA JUNE 28 WILL MARK the one-year anniversary of the Boy Scouts' victory in the landmark Supreme Court decision of Boy Scouts of America v. Dale...
...All of this illiberalism stems from a fundamental change in the gay rights movement...
Vol. 6 • June 2001 • No. 37
