Boy Scouts Lose Philadelphia Lease in Gay-Rights Fight

[stephanie]

Shame on Philly..

Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times
The Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America will be evicted from a Philadelphia municipal building for refusing to denounce the organization’s homosexuality prohibition.


By IAN URBINA
Published: December 6, 2007
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 4 — For three years the Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America held its ground. It resisted the city’s request to change its discriminatory policy toward gay people despite threats that if it did not do so, the city would evict the group from a municipal building where the Scouts have resided practically rent free since 1928.
Hailed as the birthplace of the Boy Scouts, the Beaux Arts building is the seat of the seventh-largest chapter of the organization and the first of the more than 300 council service centers built by the Scouts around the country over the past century.

But over the years the fight between the city and the Scouts was about more than this grandiose structure in Center City.

Municipal officials said the clash stemmed from a duty to defend civil rights and an obligation to abide by a local law that bars taxpayer support for any group that discriminates. Boy Scout officials said it was about preserving their culture, protecting the right of private organizations to remain exclusive and defending traditions like requiring members to swear an oath of duty to God and prohibiting membership by anyone who is openly homosexual.

This week the Boy Scouts made their last stand and lost.

“At the end of the day, you can not be in a city-owned facility being subsidized by the taxpayers and not have language in your lease that talks about nondiscrimination,” said City Councilman Darrell L. Clarke, who represents the district where the building is located. “Negotiations are over.”

Mr. Clarke said talks ended this week when the deadline passed for the local chapter to change its policy; on June 1 the group will be evicted.

“Since we were founded, we believe that open homosexuality would be inconsistent with the values that we want to communicate with our leaders,” said Gregg Shields, national spokesman for the Boy Scouts. “A belief in God is also mentioned in the Scout oath. We believe that those values are important. Tradition is important. Our mission is to instill those values in scouts and help them make good choices over their lifetimes.”

In 2000, the Supreme Court decided a case — Boy Scouts of America v. Dale — involving an openly gay scout from New Jersey who was barred from serving as troop leader. The court ruled in a 5-to-4 decision that, as a private organization, the group had a First Amendment right to set its membership rules.

The issue became a local concern in Philadelphia in May 2003 when the national Boy Scouts held their annual meeting in the city. During the conference, a local scout challenged the organization’s policies by announcing on television that he was gay and that he was a devoted member of the organization. He was promptly dismissed by the local chapter, which is called the Cradle of Liberty Council.

Municipal officials drew the line at the Beaux Arts building because the city owns the half-acre of land where the building stands. The Boy Scouts erected the ornate building and since 1928 have leased the land from the city for a token sum of $1 a year. City officials said the market value for renting the building was about $200,000 a year, and they invited the Boy Scouts to remain as full-paying tenants.

Jeff Jubelirer, a spokesman for the local chapter, said it could not afford $200,000 a year in rent, and that such a price would require it to cut summer-camp funds for 800 needy children.

“With an epidemic of gun violence taking the lives of children almost daily in this city, it’s ironic that this administration chose to destroy programming that services thousands of children in the city,” Mr. Jubelirer said. He added that the organization serves more than 69,000 young people, mostly from the inner city, and that its programming focuses on mentoring and after-school programs instead of camping trips.


read the rest..
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/us...prod=permalink

Mr. Clarke’s website is:

http:www.darrellclarke5thdistrict.com/ (with a pic and bio)

To contact him:

Email: darrell.clarke@phila.gov
Address: 484 City Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Phone: (215) 686-3442
Fax: (215) 686-1901

[Little-Acorn]

That'll teach those lousy Boy Scouts to go around corrupting people's morals. How DARE they resist our efforts to force them to accept male homosexuals as scout leaders? Who do they think they are? Sovereign citizens or something?

After all, male homosexual priests haven't hurt the Catholic church any, have they?

And wait till we get Hillary in office and re-pack that Supreme Court. We'll fix them, too.....

[darin]

if the Scouts own the building, I'd love to see them take the building with them when they leave.

Clarke is a douche-bag and out of touch with mainstream america.

[avatar4321]

It seriously makes me sick how Philly leaders are pandering to the gay community here.

Did gays ever consider that maybe people would just let them be if they let everyone else be?

[glockmail]

if the Scouts own the building, I'd love to see them take the building with them when they leave.

Clarke is a douche-bag and out of touch with mainstream america.

No shit the city just owns the land, the Scouts bilt the building. It seems to me that the City has renegged on its contract.

The scouts should padlock the building until this is resolved. No-one should have the right to occupy it except for them.

[Pale Rider]

But PEOPLE.... HOMOS DON'T HAVE AN AGENDA! They just want to be left ALONE!

[Yurt]

As much as we abhor this, philly is most likely within their rights, unless there are other facts we don't know about. How long is the lease contract? A lease contract for the "land" is not entirely about the building on the land. You must be compensated for the improvements to the land, but the city owns the land and that is why the city is within their rights to kick them off, or offer them the fair market value.

Without a contract, it will be nearly impossible for the boy scouts to win. You lease from public land, you reap what the owner decides. This is why many organizations buy private land. As I am sure most here know. So....

If philly was to do this to a muslim group, because they forced their female "scouts" to wear burkas, would we be as outraged?

I suppose, this again delves into the church/state argument, but I am not sure the argument can ever be fully resolved.

[Kathianne]

I must agree. IF it's ok for gays to 'come out' and have their own clubs and associations, if it's ok for women to have their own health clubs and groups, if it's ok for blacks to have all of the above and their own schools, what's up with the Scouts?

Seriously, the only thing the Scouts are saying is 'don't broadcast'. That seems to be too much. For both Gays and Atheists.

[Pale Rider]

As much as we abhor this, philly is most likely within their rights, unless there are other facts we don't know about. How long is the lease contract? A lease contract for the "land" is not entirely about the building on the land. You must be compensated for the improvements to the land, but the city owns the land and that is why the city is within their rights to kick them off, or offer them the fair market value.

Without a contract, it will be nearly impossible for the boy scouts to win. You lease from public land, you reap what the owner decides. This is why many organizations buy private land. As I am sure most here know. So....

If philly was to do this to a muslim group, because they forced their female "scouts" to wear burkas, would we be as outraged?

I suppose, this again delves into the church/state argument, but I am not sure the argument can ever be fully resolved.

You're right. So I hope the Scouts learn from this. Next time own the land, and when the fags come knockin', tell them to.... well... you get the idea.