Boy Scouts’ rent hiked $199,999 for gay ban
Philadelphia says it can't legally offer reduced rent to discriminatory group

Updated: 6:24 p.m. ET Oct 18, 2007
PHILADELPHIA - The city has decided that the Boy Scouts chapter here must pay fair-market rent of $200,000 a year for its city-owned headquarters because it refuses to permit gay Scouts.

The organization’s Cradle of Liberty Council, which currently pays $1 a year in rent, must pay the increased amount to remain in its downtown building past May 31, Fairmount Park Commission president Robert N.C. Nix said Wednesday.

City officials say they cannot legally rent taxpayer-owned property for a nominal sum to a private organization that discriminates. The city owns the land and the Beaux Arts building constructed by the Scouts in 1928.

Scouting officials will ask the city solicitor for details on the appraisals that yielded the $200,000 figure, said Jeff Jubelirer, spokesman for the Cradle of Liberty Council.

The higher rent money “would have to come from programs. That’s 30 new Cub Scout packs, or 800 needy kids going to our summer camp,” Jubelirer said. “It’s disappointing, and it’s certainly a threat.”

The Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that Scouts, as a private group, have a First Amendment right to bar gays from membership.

The council adopted a nondiscrimination policy in 2003 but was ordered to revoke it by the National Council, which said local chapters cannot deviate from national rules barring participation by anyone who is openly gay.

The Cradle of Liberty Council serves about 64,000 scouts in Philadelphia and its suburbs.

This is fail.

It's about time. The Boy Scouts has long been held by this government, by its people, to be the embodiment of all that America stands for. Because of the great affection that this organization has been able to solicit, it has been given free reign to openly sanction bigotry and allow discrimination to be taught to our children

If the scouts were an adult affiliated club only, it just might be on the same level as the KKK. Yet, it’s been praised by Presidents, publicly put on display as part of some marketing reinforcement of a government agenda, it is long overdue for some serious intervention.

If such an organization is to be permitted to exist, permitted to continue to teach discrimination to children, than it da mn well better be running, fully, on its own accord. There is no place for such a club in this country, and as far as I’m concerned it should be forced by the government to include in its public advertising that they are a club with selective criteria and then announce that criteria to every incumbent member and their parents.

We have elected officials fight to maintain ‘selective’ criteria in our laws, and it’s caused a division within society. If selective criteria are allowed to exist in our laws, it will be reflected in society, as the Boy Scouts of America have proven.

This sickens me. The Boy Scouts is non-profit, they should receive protection, because it's a Christian organization. 64,000 scouts will be effected by this, just because they don't allow homosexual boy scout leaders.

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS02E3

Why place men who have a higher probablity of molesting the boys in charge of the boys? It's stupid and sick.

FYI ... This is a little off subject but i do scout certificates but i also have noticed that we do not do anything for the girl scouts. i cannot disclose where i work but. all i can say is i am not the least bit suprised by this. especially since gov't organizations are shaped by former scouts.

Spider wrote: "Why place men who have a higher probablity of molesting the boys in charge of the boys? It's stupid and sick."

Oh for the love of God stop spewing your homophobic hate. That hate keeps you from seeing Gays as people.

Fitnessfanatic,

Did you read the link I provided? That research includes links to 79 different studies. It's a simple fact, homosexual men are more likely to be homosexual pediphiles than are non-homosexual men. That's not to say that all homosexual men are pediphiles, but they do have a greater tendency to that perversion.

It's also true that straight men are more likely than homosexual men to molest a little girl. Is saying that also hate? Maybe in your mind, but it's also the truth.

Liberals are all about the "kids" until you point out that putting them in the care of a homosexual scout master places them at a higher risk to be molested.

Spider, the Boy Scouts of America, as far as I know, have never claimed to be a Christian organization.

And as for pedifile offenses,I'm sure many of those boy scouts are exposed to much worse in church. But we can't really judge an entire preisthood, on the fouls of a few, can we?

why is it the Boy Scouts beeswax who you sleep with?Last time I looked homosexuality wasn't part of a criminal background check which I doubt they do on their leaders anyway.Shame on the Boy Scouts for teaching intolerance to thousands of young boys.Ya reap what ya sow .

Redykeulous,

You are right, they aren't Christian, but one of their requirements is as follows: "A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others."

Let me get this right...It's okay to put kids at a higher risk of being molested, because a priest might also molest them? Wow. Wow...Wow...Wow... I am trying to say something else, but I just keep saying Wow...

Red, I agree with you.

Some people sure know how to twist words don't they?

the whole concept of the boyscouts seems a little gay to me any way
think about the uniforms, the badges, the tents the merit
little queer to me anyway

For some reason I think the scouts themselves will end up getting much of punishment, higher fees and such.

Nobody's said anything about gay youth being excluded as part of the reason for this action. Right away the Loyal Opposition has to drop the Pedophilia Card and sandbag the discussion by poisoning the well.

I mean really, are you, of the Loyal Opposition, going to contend that the gay youth who may in some way benefit from their participation in the Scouts are also the menace to society you claim the adult leaders have a propensity for being that must also be confounded at every turn?

What if they and the youth wanted to found an all gay pack? Would we be surprised if the BSA would ban them wholesale from the organization for a far different reason?

-Kerry O.

I didnt realize they were banning gay youths also..it is 2007 right?

The scouts are a private club and as such they should have the right to set their own standards and values, and of course decide who and who souldn't be allowed to join. If homosexuality is considered by the scouts to be immoral, why would a bunch of fags want to join in the first place? I wouldn't try to join a club if my actions were inconsistant with it's values; especially if I saw no wrong in my actions. I mean if it's so prim and proper to be gay, something to be proud of they claim, why would you want to be a part of something that rejected you?

Let them start their own mirror organization, similar to the scouts, and make up their own rules. Hell they can exclude straits if they want, I could give a damn less.

I hear a good many of you gay supporters scream intolerance whenever someone disagrees with you. Aren't you failing to tolerate their decision to dissagree? And since when is tolerance of what one considers wrong a virtue anyway? I'm proud to say I don't tolerate what I consider evil or wrong. What we have freedom to speak, but not freedom to think? We can't make up our minds on an issue unless it's consistant with a leftist agenda? If it were the other way around you guys would be screaming fascism.

While I'm at it, drop the term homophobe. A phobia is an irrational fear. Most people I know who don't approve of homosexuality aren't scared of gays and their disaproval, right or wrong, is often grounded in some rationality.

Moving on, I'm going to have to call out Lizardking real quick. YOU son sound a little queer to me. If you find anything homo-erotic about young boys wearing uniforms, something's obviously very wrong with you. The scouts is a great way for young boys to learn valueable skills and be brought up with knowlege of good citizenship. Yea I know someones going to go "since when is bigotry a mark of good citizenship?". If the parent's don't agree with the scouts values no one is drafting their kids into it.

Rat on a Horny Toad wrote:

"Fitnessfanatic,

Did you read the link I provided? That research includes links to 79 different studies. It's a simple fact, homosexual men are more likely to be homosexual pediphiles than are non-homosexual men. That's not to say that all homosexual men are pediphiles, but they do have a greater tendency to that perversion.

It's also true that straight men are more likely than homosexual men to molest a little girl. Is saying that also hate? Maybe in your mind, but it's also the truth.

I can give a flying f*ck to what ever religioso site you get your "facts" from. It is sexually repressed men that are mostly like to sexually abuse children reguardless of wherther they are gay or not. Case in point(s); the Priest Child sex abuse cases that rock the Catholic Church, the lesser known but equally distrubing Pastor Child sex abuse in the Mormon church, news of the a well know Evangelist who preach family values and railed against but had secret coke habit and gay lover.

I find it interesting that Puritans that founded this country because they wanted to perserve a pure Christian faith would have many cases where they tried people for having sex with farm animals. Those same Puritan would more distrubing place painful devices on little boys so that they couldn't masterbate or get an erection.

being the analytical type n all

i wonder

if the boy scout knuckle under and say ok to the gay issue

and if by some coincidence an open gay leader

does molest a scout

who would be liable for this in the pending law suit

hhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm