(Note: the picture above is of Douglas B. Smith, a former National executive now serving an eight-year prison sentence for peddling kiddie porn on the Internet. It's kind of irrelevant to what's written below, but the "scumbag" title sums up my feelings appropriately, so it's staying.)
A long-running tiff between the Boy Scouts of America and the City of Philadelphia, two dysfunctional, time-honored institutions I hold dear, is coming to an end soon. And it looks like the Scouts are going to be losing out.
Good.
The long and the short of it is this: the city has been extremely kind to the Scouts. Since 1928, they've allowed the residents of the Council building at 22nd and Winter Streets to hole up there essentially for free. Cradle of Liberty Council has been paying $1 a month lease to Philadelphia hearkening back to the Philadelphia Area Council era - the good old days, when they could do all the atheist-hatin' and fag-bashing they cared to. Last night, City Council came out of nowhere to vote an end to that golden age:
The long-simmering dispute over whether the Boy Scouts of America's Cradle of Liberty Council must publicly affirm it will not discriminate against openly gay people - or pay fair-market rent for the city-owned Logan Square land on which their landmark headquarters is located - boiled over anew yesterday as City Council authorized the city to end the lease.Basically, Philadelphia said to the Scouts last year that they'd better fucking cut it out or they'd be out on their asses. And, to their credit, Cradle of Liberty council tried. They had a non-discrimination policy in place as recently as 2003, but BSA National would have none of that. Essentially, their right to keep the queers out is protected under the First Amendment. Irving, Texas called up Cradle of Liberty and told them to get rid of the policy ASAP, as it goes against the backwater "morals and val-yoos" of the grand ole' BSA.
In theory, the Boy Scouts elects not to include atheists or homosexuals in their program, as the Scout Law states - "A Scout is Reverent" and everybody knows that atheism and homosexuality are as irreverent as it gets. In practice, this would probably fly if 99% of the troops, crews, ships, and Cub Scout Packs in the rest of the country weren't chartered to various Christian institutions that are notoriously strict themselves regarding the whole intolerance schtick. If the Scouts were to suddenly do an about-face on National policy and begin to include these groups, you'd bet your sweet ass there would be a lot of local groups without a place to hold their weekly meetings.
Thus, here we are in the 21st century, (an era when, in my estimation, we would have a large majority of Scouts and Scouters in support of a national policy change) and the BSA is sticking to their no-gays rule as if it's one of the foundations of the organization or something. In doing so, they're not only alienating scores of young gents from taking part in what is otherwise a great program, and they're not just making bigotry acceptable to thousands of young, impressionable minds: they're making themselves increasingly irrelevant for it.
There's a bumper-sticker that reads "America is returning to the values that Scouting never left" that truly shows how out-of-touch the organization is becoming by clinging to memories of the Scouting hey-day. By doggedly defending these policies, they believe they're protecting the integrity of the organization, when in reality it's that failure to adapt that is responsible for falling membership, participation, and, let's face it - respect. The City of Philadelphia is well within bounds by telling Cradle of Liberty to get with it or get the fuck out of our building - and unfortunately, they'll either end up paying what everyone else pays to rent in the City or they'll find another place to warp young minds. It seems quite apparent now that although the individual council unit (one of the largest and most influential councils in the country) is willing to make the change, the national organization would pull the rug out from under them in such a fashion.
Nothing's going to change right now, and the Boy Scouts of America will whoop and holler about the great injustices done to it while failing to recognize the irony in that they're doing greater injustices to the gays and atheists they're shutting out in the process. They'll pay more money to stay at 22nd and Winter when they can least afford it, and Jay Leno will make some crack about how everyone in the scouts is already gay.
I've spoken to a lot of scouts, former scouts, and leaders about the subject. I've spoken to folks from all over the Mid-Atlantic region in person, and to scouts from all over the world online. The reactions I've received are mostly supportive of change, which makes the discussion even more frustrating to keep having. The consensus on the topic has been pretty unanimous: if Scouting doesn't want to change an unjust, exclusionary policy, fuck 'em. They deserve what they get.
Link via [Philly.com]
