Withdrawal of public support for local BSA councils

[MarkNoel]

Here's a article from Philadelphia today that brings up several recent topics:

 

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/local/6200252.htm

 

 

Here are some excerpts:

 

For more than three-quarters of a century, a local Boy Scout council has enjoyed the free use of city land for its headquarters at 22d and Winter Streets in Philadelphia.

 

Now city politicians and gay civil rights activists - in light of the Scouts' rigid anti-gay stance - are raising questions about that arrangement.

 

. . . .

 

In 1928, the Philadelphia City Council voted in favor of letting the Philadelphia Boy Scouts use rent-free nearly half an acre of land "in perpetuity."

 

. . . .

 

The questions arise because of the city's prohibition against discrimination based on sexual orientation. The prohibition is part of the city's Fair Practices Ordinance, which was passed in 1982 by City Council. In 2002, in a bill introduced by DiCicco, council added sexual identity, which affects transsexuals, to the list.

 

A spokeswoman for the mayor said Friday that the administration was studying the issue of what to do with the property.

 

"The mayor has asked us to look at the 1928 agreement and see how it squares up with or is in opposition to the Fair Practices Ordinance," said Barbara Grant, the mayor's spokeswoman. "We're not sure how the law applies here, and we want to take a look at that before we take a position here."

 

. . . .

 

Stacey L. Sobel, executive director of Philadelphia's Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, said the center is in the process of reviewing the city's Fair Practices Ordinance, which, as she pointed out, forbids a group from invoking "its private character for the purpose of excluding or discriminating."

 

 

[Bob White]

Mark, The city has the right to review their policies and even change them as long as they stay within their legal limits and obligations.

 

How does that change the BSA's constitutional right to free association?

(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[eisely]

This is an unfortunate, but not surprising turn of events. The scouts in San Diego went through a similar round, although their legal footing was probably better. The City of Berserkly...oops...Berkeley successfully reneged on a decades old contract where the scouts provided construction material for the city's breakwater at no cost for a promise of perpetual free access to the marina created thereby. We will see more of this sort of thing around the country.