Boy Scouts of America Board Set to Consider Ending Ban on Gays -- Newsmax

[bsteadman]

Boy Scouts of America Board Set to Consider Ending Ban on Gays

Newsmax
2/4/2013

Excerpt:

Boy Scouts of America board members will meet this week to debate ending a controversial national ban on gay membership, prompting groups both for and against the move to converge on its Texas headquarters for demonstrations.

The national executive board, which lists more than 70 members, is expected to vote on Wednesday, the last day of a three-day meeting, on whether to lift the ban they had reaffirmed just last year amid criticism from gay rights groups and gay former Scouts and Scout leaders.

The Boy Scouts has not responded to inquiries about the private meeting, but activists for and against lifting the ban said they expected a vote on Wednesday.

The organization said on Jan. 28 that it was considering removing the national restriction based on sexual orientation and leaving the decision to local chapters. It said it would not dictate a position to units, members or to parents.

Gay rights activists have said lifting the national ban, but allowing local units to maintain a ban, would not go far enough.

The board meeting comes as the century-old youth organization that prides itself on teaching boys life skills such as camping and leadership, faces membership declines and a donations boycott by some corporations over its anti-gay policy.

Youth membership in the Boy Scouts has dropped 21 percent since 2000 to nearly 2.7 million. Adult leader membership has fallen 14 percent to just over 1 million, and the number of units has declined 12.6 percent to 108,971.

Activists have pressed corporations, including Merck and UPS, as well as the Intel Foundation to withhold contributions to the Boy Scouts while the ban stands.

The Boy Scouts has also faced criticism for keeping from public view files covering decades of reports of child sex abuse in the organization. It released thousands of pages of files covering 1965 to 1985 in October under a court order.

The drive to lift the ban gained a powerful ally on Sunday in President Barack Obama. In an interview with CBS, anchor Scott Pelley asked the president if he believed scouting should be open to gays, Obama said: "Yes."

"My attitude is ... that gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does, in every institution and walk of life," said Obama, who last year gave his backing to the right to same sex couples to marry.

"The Scouts are a great institution that are promoting young people and exposing them to, you know, opportunities and leadership that will serve people for the rest of their lives, and I think that nobody should be barred (from) that."

But Texas Governor Rick Perry, an Eagle Scout, told reporters on Saturday he did not see a reason for the Boy Scouts to change its longstanding policy, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

Parents are also split on the proposal. Pam Bakowski, the mother of an Eagle Scout and former den leader and Cub master who lives in the Dallas area, said the Boy Scouts were about teaching life skills and leadership.

"I think the ban is ridiculous and needs to be lifted," Bakowski said.

The mother of an Eagle Scout, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Denise, said she opposed lifting the ban.

"The current policy has worked fine for more than 100 years so there is no reason to change it," she said. "If my son had been in a troop with a gay leader, I would have taken him out."

LOBBYING BEFORE THE VOTE

The Boy Scouts won a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2000 that upheld the organization's ban on gays, but it has come under increasing public pressure in recent years from activists.

The faith-based groups that have the most Boy Scouts youth members - the Mormon church, the United Methodist Church and the Catholic Church in that order - have so far stood by the Scouts.

Many local chapters have said they were waiting for the national board to render a verdict before weighing in, others want board members to take more time to consider a decision.

"We believe that any decision that strikes at the core of our 103-year history merits full input from all stakeholders in deliberation and discussion," The Great Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts of America said in a statement.

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[bsteadman]

Scout leaders vow to quit if 'gay' policy reversed

Century-old organization 'will end up having money but no program'

WND
Art Moore
2/3/2013

Excerpt:

He’s a fourth-generation Boy Scout leader, recipient of an award for distinguished leadership and a member of the Southern Region committee as well as an ad hoc member of the national committee.

But if the Boy Scouts of America’s national executive board follows through this week with a proposal to reverse a century-old policy and allow homosexuals in its ranks, Steve Elwart of Vicksburg, Miss., says he’s one of many Scout leaders throughout the leadership structure who will resign.

Elwart, a 30-year veteran of Scouting, explained to WND that with a model program already in place to protect Scouts from sexual abuse, his concern is not that pedophiles will infiltrate the organization if the policy is changed.

Calling that issue a “red herring,” his concern is more fundamental.

“Homosexuality is not a value I want to see imparted on my children,” he said. “And a lot of parents feel the same way, that homosexuality is not OK.”

Along with his regional committee position, Elwart said he will also resign as assistant scoutmaster of Troop 638 in Vicksburg, where he has served since 1987. He also is a former scoutmaster for the troop.

Elwart, a frequent contributor to WND, explained he will resign if the new policy is passed, because by remaining, he would be “giving tacit agreement to the policy.”

The executive board is meeting Monday through Wednesday in Irving, Texas, the headquarters of the national organization.

Noting the culturally conservative rank-and-file membership of the Scouts, Elwart believes the executive board is poised to change the policy because of the loss of major corporate donors, who were pressured by homosexual-rights groups.

In contrast, he cited Boy Scouts founder Sir Robert Baden Powell’s philosophy of not asking for money, explaining he had an idea, and “money followed the idea.”

The Boy Scouts of America, a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, was founded in 1910.

“I’m afraid that if the BSA goes down this road, they may preserve some big money, but they will lose not only small contributors but the efforts of thousands of volunteers that do not want to be part of this,” Elwart said.

“They’ll end up with a lot of money but no program.”

As WND reported, the BSA’s new policy proposal coincides with a sudden drop in major corporate funding that began last summer after a gay-rights blogger for the Huffington Post published a collaborative report that named the donors and chastised them for violating their own policy of not discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.

The Scouts count more than 2.7 million members and more than 1 million volunteers. The Scout troops, which are hosted by churches and other organizations, are organized into districts, based on geographic boundaries, which in turn are grouped into councils. The councils form 26 areas nationwide, which are further grouped into four regions. The BSA national council sets policy, offers national awards and organizes national jamborees.

Elwart said, based on his extensive communication in the past week with Scout leaders nationwide, the BSA national council’s proposal has created a firestorm

“Overwhelmingly, they do not like the change,” Elwart said of his colleagues. “A majority of them are considering retiring.”

He affirmed that his sample includes both volunteers and paid professionals from local unit leaders to leaders at the district, council and regional levels across the country.

‘Meeting the needs of families’

Last week, the national council in Irving announced it was considering allowing the local, chartered organizations that oversee Scouting to establish their own membership policy

Speaking for the National Council, Director of Public Relations Deron Smith explained that BSA members and parents “would be able to choose a local unit which best meets the needs of their families.”

But last July, an 11-member committee of professional scout executives and adult volunteers unanimously concluded after a two-year study that the policy of barring homosexuals should be maintained. The executive committee of the BSA national executive board then announced that while not all board members “may personally agree with this policy, and may choose a different direction for their own organizations, BSA leadership agrees this is the best policy for the organization and supports it for the BSA.”

Elwart thinks the proposed policy’s stipulation that each local unit can decide for themselves whether or not they want to receive homosexuals is not feasible.

“They’re trying to parse their words now,” he said.

The policy runs into trouble, Elwart argued, when local units come together for events such as summer camps and jamborees.
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[bsteadman]

Look which companies dumping Boy Scouts

Corporate donors quitting or directing cash to 'tolerant' BSA programs

WND
Art Moore
2/4/2013

Excerpt:

Major corporations that have donated to the Boy Scouts of America in recent years are largely remaining quiet ahead of the highly anticipated vote Wednesday on the organization’s policy on homosexuals, but some have made it clear their money will go only to groups that don’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

In 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, the top donors to the Scouts, listed in descending order according to amount, were Intel, Emerson, Verizon, 3M, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Pfizer, Valero, UPS, U.S. Bank, Eli Lilly and Co., GE, Monsanto, Medtronic, PNC, Nationwide, Abbott, General Mills, Alcoa, Caterpillar, Illinois Tool Works, Allstate and Dow Chemical.

As WND reported last week, a major drop in corporate funding came last September after a gay-rights blogger for the Huffington Post published a collaborative report that named the donors and chastised them for violating their own policy of not discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.

Since the September report, Intel, UPS and Merck are among the corporations that have declared they have stopping funding the BSA.

The homosexual-rights group Scouting for All lists some of the corporations that have refused to fund the BSA’s national organization. They include IBM, Levi Strauss and Company, J.P. Morgan, American Airlines, Medtronic, Portland General Gas and Electric, Hewlett Packard, Textron, Fleet Bank, CVS/Pharmacy Stores and Carrier Corp.

At the time of the September report, shipping giant UPS, which gave $167,000 to the Scouts in 2010, insisted the “gay” policy would not impact its donations. But after a petition drive that month by another homosexual-rights group, Scouts for Equality, UPS changed its mind.

Scouts for Equality now lists UPS, Merck and Intel as corporate sponsors. Among the public figures who support the group’s aims, along with President Obama, are 2012 Republican presidential nominee Gov. Mitt Romney and Washington state Republican gubernatorial nominee Rob McKenna.

Scouting for All also has a list of companies that donate to national or local Boy Scout councils and/or having a matching gifts program for employees who donate to the Scouts. But the list is not up-to-date, as it includes UPS. Scouting for All urges supporters to boycott the listed companies.

UPS spokeswoman Kristen A. Petrella, the international public relations manager, told WND Monday that UPS had no comment in response to questions about how the vote by the Scouts executive board Wednesday might affect the corporation’s position toward the BSA.

General Mills spokeswoman Kris Patton told WND her corporation’s foundation funds local Boy Scout organizations that sign an “affirmation of nondiscrimination” but does not contribute to the national organization.

“As a longstanding practice, organizations we support must sign an affirmation of nondiscrimination as a standard part of our grant-making process.”
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[bsteadman]

'Gay' campaign for Boy Scouts stalls

Board postpones decision on changing century-old policy

WND
2/6/2013

Excerpt:

A campaign pursued by “gay” activists to have the Boy Scouts of America open their doors to homosexuals has stalled, with a decision today from officials meeting in Irving, Texas, to delay their decision until May.

The move to open the ranks to homosexuality widely had been expected to be announced today, after the organization said it was reviewing its stance last week. But in the meantime, a tidal wave of opposition surged.

A report in the New York Times confirmed that officials delayed the decision, but provided no other clues.

Scout officials said, “After careful consideration and extensive dialogue within the Scouting family, along with comments from those outside the organization, the volunteer officers of the Boy Scouts of America’s National Executive Board concluded that due to the complexity of this issue, the organization needs time for a more deliberate review of its membership policy.”

One organization actively seeking the change said the board in a closed door meeting decided to form a task force on the issue. Officials with Change.org said the policy will remain the status quo for now.

The proposal for the change had been floated by the organization only a few days ago, drawing intense opposition from many quarters.
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