Now the District of Columbia

[eisely 13]

The piece posted below goes back to July 25. On September 25 the House of Representatives approved an amendment to the District funding bill prohibiting government funds being used to enforce the District's Human Rights Commission from enforcing its order against the scouts. Apparently the controversy involves volunteeer leaders, not paid professionals. It is bizarre that the District would ignore the Supreme Court of the United States, but then anyone who has followed the statehood controversy would not be too surprised. These guys almost make Berkeley look good.

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D.C. Gay GOP Councilman Leads Charge Against Scouts, Salvation Army

By Martha Kleder

 

District of Columbia City Councilman David Catania (R-At Large) is leading the effort in the nations capital to punish the Boy Scouts of America and the Salvation Army for excluding homosexuals from leadership positions.

 

"Mr. Catanias intervention shows that Log Cabin-type Republican activists who achieve public office will abuse their powers to advance the homosexual agenda," said Robert Knight, director of CWAs Culture and Family Institute.

 

"The GOP ought to apologize for backing a man who, because of his own sexual agenda, wields government authority like a commissar in singling out the Salvation Army and the Boy Scouts for scrutiny," Knight added.

 

Catania went on the warpath on July 11. Thats when The Washington Post broke the story about the Salvation Army receiving assurances from the White House that in the presidents faith-based initiative, charities religious beliefs would not be trampled by local and state laws requiring accommodation based on "sexual orientation."

 

Catania assailed the Army publicly, and contacted the local and national Salvation Army offices. "When public funds are being used, those entities receiving them must follow the law and not discriminate," he said.

 

He also threatened the religious denomination. "If I learn or suspect that the Salvation Army is, in fact, engaged in discrimination in carrying out its non-religious work," Catania said, "I will not hesitate to conduct hearings and subpoena them into appearing before the Council."

 

GOING AFTER THE SCOUTS

The next day, Catania sent a letter to members of the U.S. Congress, protesting HR 2390, a bill that would invalidate a June 20 finding of the D.C. Human Rights Commission against the Boy Scouts.

 

The commission had issued a 75-page ruling that says the Scouts policy of prohibiting homosexuals from serving as Scoutmasters violates the citys anti-discrimination law.

 

The commission ordered the Boy Scout Council to re-instate two homosexual leaders, Roland Pool and Michael Geller. The Scouts also were ordered to pay the two men $50,000 each in damages. The actions came after the June 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision that the Scouts have a First Amendment right to their own beliefs and associations.

 

HR 2390 prohibits the city "from using any funds to issue, implement, administer, or enforce any order invalidating the policy of the Boy Scouts of America regarding the employment or voluntary service of homosexual troop leaders."

 

The bill is sponsored by Rep. John Hostettler (R-Indiana), Roscoe Bartlett (R-Maryland), Steve Largent (R-Oklahoma), Todd Tiahrt (R-Kansas), Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), Bob Schaffer (R-Colorado) and Todd Akin (R-Missouri).

 

Catania sent a protest letter to every Republican House member. It read, in part:

 

"The recent decision by the D.C. Commission on Human Rights regarding two individuals and the Boy Scouts of America is only one step in the process. If the Boy Scouts do not agree with the decision, they can appeal it to the D.C. Court of Appeals. I implore you to allow this process to proceed as if it were occurring in any other jurisdiction in the United States."