Kudos to the Fairmount Park Commission for holding firm on the Boy Scouts thing, though one suspects there may be other issues at work, like hmmm, say, the city getting its hands on that phat building at 22nd and Winter? Well, if it’s in the pursuit of an even higher cause, the real estate angle can be overlooked.
Long story short: The Boy Scouts, America’s favorite homophobic paramilitary youth group, pays $1 a year in rent on a building that should cost $200K. So it’s time to pay up or pack up, Boys.
FOXNews goes there about whether city solicitor Romulo L. Diaz Jr. has a hard-on for this issue (yes, I just said that) because he’s openly gay:
The city Scouts say they agreed on a compromise with the prior solicitor —which involved the adoption of a promise not to engage in “unlawful discrimination” similar to one the New York chapter has — and claims the current solicitor has an ulterior motive because he himself is openly gay.
“We adopted a non-discrimination policy in 2005 with the city’s help, which is ironic now,” said Cradle of Liberty spokesman Jeff Jubelirer. “Since that time, there’s been no one challenging the policy, no reports of discrimination. Nothing has come to the public’s attention. And yet the current solicitor thinks this language is not clear enough.
“It’s been reported that the solicitor is openly homosexual — and who cares — but I wonder if it’s something that he and members of the activist gay community want: to kick the Boy Scouts out of their building.” [via FOXNews.com]
No, you Neanderthal, what people — not just in the gay community — want is for the Boy Scouts of America to REMOVE the discriminatory language from its policies. And if they won’t, then the local Councils must either accept the consequences of their “moral” stand or clearly and in so many words reject the BSA’s bigotry, which they have not. You can read the Cradle of Liberty Council’s current nondiscrimination clause, such as it is, here [PDF].
The Scouts are free to discriminate, but that freedom (like Fame!) costs. It’s not enough for the Cradle of Liberty Council to say “we won’t discriminate.” They need to say, “and they shouldn’t either.”
And if a gay man won’t lead this fight, who will? Stand up!