Deny discrimination

Boy Scouts not entitled to school access

Somewhere in America, an elementary school gym is packed with Boy Scouts and their families. Perhaps they are gathered for the annual potluck dinner and are already forming eager lines next to the paper plates and plastic silverware. Or maybe it is time for this year's highly anticipated Pinewood Derby and the boys are anxiously comparing cars, wondering who will take home the trophy. Whatever the event, the atmosphere is charged with youthful enthusiasm. The scoutmasters look on with pride. Parents glow. Cameras flash. All are smiling, but there is something terribly wrong with this picture.

Behind all the merit badges, the patriotism and the good deeds (e.g. helping old ladies across the street), the Boy Scouts of America buried an unpleasant truth for many years. Over the course of the past decade, it has come to light that the BSA will not tolerate homosexuality. It all began in New Jersey in 1990, when James Dale was expelled from his position as an Eagle Scout assistant scoutmaster because he was gay. In 1992, Dale sued the BSA for discrimination. In 1999, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in his favor, ordering the BSA to reinstate him. After their subsequent appeal, the BSA emerged victorious last June, when the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision on the grounds that forcing the BSA to allow gay scoutmasters would mean forcing them to endorse "homosexual conduct as a legitimate form of behavior." Though the ruling did not specifically mention the right to exclude gay boys, it left room for such an interpretation. In short, the BSA was deemed a private organization that could do with its money as it saw fit.

This ruling not-withstanding, there has been an outpouring of opposition to the BSA's anti-gay policy. For example, many United Way organizations, some of the largest annual donors to the BSA, have dramatically cut funding in light of their prejudiced practices. In addition, last week, the Plymouth-Canton teachers' union signed a resolution asking the local Board of Education to prohibit the Boy Scouts from meeting or recruiting on school property if they continue to exclude gays from their ranks.

Area BSA leaders have called the legality of such a measure into question, citing the Equal Access Act passed by Congress. The Act states that all student-led, extra-curricular organizations that meet in a given district must be given equal access to facilities. The Boy Scouts, however, are a national organization run by adults, not students, so it cannot be classified the same way as other student clubs. It has always been and should continue to be up to the schools to decide which outside groups can use their property. And the BSA built its anti-gay case on being a private organization that didn't have to live up to the standards of public groups. Public schools are under no obligation to accommodate private groups that refuse to live up to the public standards of non-discrimination.

The Plymouth-Canton teachers should be applauded for their courage in taking on an organization with as long a history and as much support as the BSA. If the Supreme Court refuses to stop the BSA from practicing intolerance, the responsibility shifts to private citizens. By denying gays membership, the BSA teaches its scouts that it is okay to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Where will it end? Wouldn't our government speak up if a specific racial group were being cast out in this manner? This kind of blatant discrimination is unacceptable. The Plymouth-Canton teachers aren't standing for it and neither should anybody else.