Test 2

Please select your preferred language.

請選擇你慣用的語言。

请选择你惯用的语言。

English
中文简体
台灣繁體
香港繁體

登入

記住我

初到 Fridae?

Fridae Mobile

Advertisement
Highlights

More About Us

新聞&特寫

« 較新的 | 較舊的 »
7 Dec 2007

philadelphia boy scouts face eviction over gay ban

Following a three-year fight with the city government, Philadelphia's Boy Scout chapter will have to vacate its city-subsidised headquarters for refusing to publicly renounce its ban on people who are openly gay or atheist.

Ignoring the Dec 3 deadline set by the city to amend its membership policy, the Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America now faces eviction from its headquarters, a landmark city-owned building where the group has been paying a token sum of US$1 a year to lease the building since 1928.

The Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America has been paying a token sum of US$1 a year to lease historic headquarters since 1928
According to media reports, city officials said the market value for renting the building was about US$200,000 a year - an amount the organisation says it is unable to pay when invited to remain as full-paying tenants.

Hailed as the birthplace of the Boy Scouts, the Beaux Arts building is the first of the more than 300 council service centres built by the Scouts around the country over the past century.

The local chapter had resisted the city's request to change its discriminatory policy toward gay people requiring members to swear an oath of "duty to God" and prohibiting membership by anyone who is openly gay.

"Since we were founded, we believe that open homosexuality would be inconsistent with the values that we want to communicate with our leaders," said Gregg Shields, national spokesman for the Boy Scouts.

Although in 2000, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts being a private group has a first amendment right to refuse membership to gays, city solicitor Romulo Diaz was quoted as saying that the city will not subsidise that discrimination by passing on the costs to the people of Philadelphia."

City officials added that they have an obligation to abide by a local law that bars taxpayer support for any group that discriminates.

Councilman Darrell L. Clarke who represents the district where the building is located said, "At the end of the day, you can not be in a city-owned facility being subsidised by the taxpayers and not have language in your lease that talks about non-discrimination."

He said talks ended this week when the deadline passed for the group to change its policy; on June 1 the group will be evicted. The City Council voted 16-to-1 to authorise ending the lease on May 31.

In May 2003, a local scout who challenged the organisation's policies - after an openly gay scout from New Jersey was barred from serving as troop leader - by announcing on television that he was gay and that he was a devoted member of the organisation was promptly dismissed.

United States

讀者回應

1. 2007-12-07 22:22  
Quite right, too. Under the democractic American consitutional settings - which, given today's mores and values, are not as entirely democratic or 'free' as they were once perceived to be - I would support the Boy Scouts' decision to exclude homosexuals, given the ties between the founders' commitment and oath to God, and the central tenet of the society being not to follow a loosely Un-Christian way - including Homosexuality. [Which, incidentally, isn't a 'way', but an intrinsic part of an individual's nature.]

So, in this case and context, I think the Scouts were justified in sticking to their guns, and allowing their ban to stay.

But.

Kudos to the local politicians, who've voted to kick out the Scouts from their old base. They're dead right - it would be entirely wrong for them to support a discriminatory group and its ongoing discriminations. Public/City funds are to be used in a secular manner at the very least, or to give equal aid to the range of local faiths.

Aiding a group that discriminates against a section of society goes against the very core of what it means to represent society, and run for office as a politician.

So. Scouts. Good that they stuck to their opinion, but there's a (deserved?) price to pay for them...
回應#2於被作者刪除。
3. 2007-12-08 09:11  
Actually, if I remember rightly, the scout promise is to do your duty to god and the Queen - or presumably the King in the founder Baden-Powell's day. I bet they changed the royal bit in Philadelphia! ;)

And the Queen's government has made it clear, on pain of having your goolies cut off, that it is wrong to discriminate against gay people.
4. 2007-12-08 10:12  
If a gay man just does his job his sexuality shouldn't be brought into the equasion, seems weird to me the guy had to go on TV and make an issue of it...lets face Children should be protected from all predators both Straight & Gay...sexuality should not be an issue for kids...time that we as Homosexual orientated people should become less Liberal on some issues...& we should frown on travellers who go to underdeveloped countries with the sole intent of sexually exploiting children & youths encouraging prostitution and spreading disease
5. 2007-12-08 17:35  
"We should frown on travellers who go to underdeveloped countries with the sole intent of sexually exploiting children & youths encouraging prostitution and spreading disease".

Very true. But 100% nothing to do with the Scouts, unless there's some secret link that isn't widely known...!
6. 2007-12-08 19:40  
Good riddance to discrimination against our community.
Standing ovation for the eviction.
7. 2007-12-09 22:18  
For heaven's sake. I was a boyscout for 10 years, this trully pisses me off. First, we saw this same thing with the god damn Boyscouts of America.
Are they absurd or what?I'll write it in capitals:
BADEN POWELL WAS GAY!!!!!
the founder of the boyscouts was a homo!Do you understand?Have u read any of his biographies???I did, please try Tim Jewell's book, which is considered the most accurate one.
Why in the world do you think he first came up with "boy" scouts, and why he sent letters about the beauty of "naked bodies" to his close friends?and why his wife looked like Peter Pan, and they never have a child?And his lover, Mclaren??shesh. i'm sick of this hypocrisy.
8. 2007-12-10 15:50  
Hypocrisy with a capital H
9. 2007-12-10 22:03  
Just a remark, it's Tim Jeal,, and not Jewell. It's been 6 years since i've read it, so i apologize for that mistake.

here's a link with info on it, and i add that several of his biographies clearly state the same:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baden-Powell%27s_sexual_orientation

this link does not mention his lover (who was his "best friend", and quite good looking), things behind his wedding, and neither does it mention what happened when the girl scouts were founded (it was like...a lesbian sex community and it ended up in court).
10. 2007-12-24 16:36  
yeah....a standing ovulation to the (non) suckers...kick-em out and make em pay proper rent for the HQ of their predudicicial, oppressive little club. And here here to the queer founder...Mr. Powell....long live the queen.

請先登入再使用此功能。

Social


This article was recently read by

請選擇新聞及專欄版本

精選個人檔案

Now ALL members can view unlimited profiles!

Languages

View this page in a different language:

讚好

合作夥伴

 ILGA Asia - Fridae partner for LGBT rights in Asia IGLHRC - Fridae Partner for LGBT rights in Asia

Advertisement