Boy Scouts Lose Funding for Excluding Gays

[david uk]

"The US Supreme Court denied an appeal this week by a Boy Scouts affiliate that lost its rent break from the city of Berkeley, California because the Scouts exclude gays and atheists.

The court, without comment, upheld a California Supreme Court ruling this March that said a city is entitled to subsidise only organisations that comply with its anti-discrimination rules."

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-2772.html

good for them!:)

[ponytail]

I'm in favor of discriminators having their nose rubbed in it at every opportunity, and I'm glad Bush's Supreme Court is making some pro-gay decisions.

I'm sorry to see the kids involved losing out, though. It's not their fault.

[DaveM]

I'd really like to see the Scouts catch up a bit with the times. When the organization was founded, the basic idea behind it was to prepare young boys for the day when they grew up and entered the military. Military service is no longer nearly as common as it once was, and of course today's military includes both sexes.

To my mind Scouting teaches many valuable skills, including citizenship, leadership, and a number of basic hands-on skills that few people learn elsewhere. But if discrimination is going to continue to be part of the package, I'm rather glad no public money is going to support it. And I hope the message is received. "Honor", a major principle in Scouting, is not served at all well by presuming that significant segments of the human race are incapable of it.