Count me as one of those Eagle Scouts who’s pissed off at the BSA’s national leadership. Those guys have gotten way cranky in the last ten years or so.
That said, it seems to me that banning the local Boy Scout troop from the local schools based on the policies of the national leadership is unjustified. The Boy Scouts are not some monolithic organization with an Inquisition to discover and expel nonbelievers. As a practical matter, nearly all decisions on the activities and policies of a troop are made by the troop leaders, who can be quite willing to ignore the national leadership’s witch hunts. It makes no sense to punish a troop because of discriminatory policies it may not even believe in or enforce.
Not to mention the whole public-accomodations legal argument, about which MGibson is perfectly correct.
Georgetown University has a Congressional Charter, as does the Daughters of the American Revolution. I further recall (somewhat vaguely) a stink recently when the Daughters of Confederate Veterans tried to reny their Congressional Charter, as their emblem contains the Stars and Bars.
I get the feeling that Congressional Charters for private organizations are a dime a dozen.
But the parents of gay students also pay taxes. By allowing the Boy Scouts to use the facilities, the school is actively participating in discrimination. There are activities taking place at the school which the gay students are not allowed to participate in.
Damn straight. Conservative hypocricy knows no bounds, because there are so many different things which push their buttons.
This is just another example of Conservatives sticking to their guns. I’m glad to see that the Republican philosoophy of leaving local matters to local governments has such deep roots. Integrity indeed.
Perhaps Mr. Helms should switch to the Democrats?
“Republicans: Keeping Big Government off of people’s backs since 1860.”
Well, we are talking about Jesse Helms here. His idea of “compassionate conservatism” (which is IMO an oxymoron) is to say “I’m sorry you’re a godless heathen faggot” before burning his opponents at the stake.