Boy Scout Group Likens Itself to KKK

Posted on | January 11, 2006

The Boy Scouts are some of my favorite hypocrites in terms of how they treat others. In Boy Scouts of America vs. Dale the Supreme Court ruled that the BSA, as a private organization, was legally able to discriminate against gays and atheists. I happened to agree with this decision because I do feel that private organizations should not be forced to have members they do not want because we do have a freedom of association.

The BSA is run by a bunch of morons if they thought there was going to be no backlash and they knew that their era of having their cake and eating it too was over in certain places. It does seem like the BSA is run by morons though because they fail to recognize that the decision that supported them does work both ways and that others are free to disassociate themselves from the BSA and cease giving them some of the perks they had received in the past.. However the BSA feels the need to sue anyway.

One such case was argued before the California Supreme Court yesterday. Sea Scouts, a group affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America, is suing the city of Berkeley which ceased its $500 monthly subsidy of fees for use of the marina. Under a policy passed in 1997, Berkeley provides this subsidy to non-profit groups which have no membership discrimination rules. The Sea Scouts sued saying they were being held to a different standard. Even funnier though is the claim that the Sea Scouts do not discriminate but yet when asked by one of the justices if they would allow an openly gay individual to participate, the attorney for the group answered no but yet answered that they were on equal footing with a youth group affiliated with the Klu Klux Klan which obviously discriminates.

I do realize that public entities do have to walk a fine line in situations like this. However I do feel that they should have a right to set certain conditions like nondiscrimination policies. The Berkeley City Attorney put it best I think when he told the justices:

"We don’t want to use our money to fund discriminatory policies."

However there is a precedent from the US Supreme Court on this type of situation as it ruled the US Department of Education could withhold funds from schools that discriminated on the basis of gender and that universities like Bob Jones could be stripped of tax-exempt status because of racist admissions policies.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Boy Scout Group Likens Itself to KKK”

Julie Carter
January 11th, 2006 @ 12:30 pm

You know your argument is going downhill when you have to liken your own group to Klan members or Nazis! Poor widdle Boy Scouts.
Chandira
January 11th, 2006 @ 6:22 pm

Hitler Youth I’m sure also discriminated against a few people.. The uniforms always struck me as similar.

I am all for discrimination though, I wouldn’t let a white supremacist gay-hating person join my Ashram. Not without some serious ‘encounter group’ first, anyway. Like a week alone camping in the forest with the boys from Queer Eye, or something. I’d recommend tickle-therapy.