Boy Scouts Threaten to Kick Out Troop for Supporting Gay Members
The Boy Scouts council in charge of overseeing scout programs in the Washington, DC-area is threatening to kick out a Maryland troop for posting a statement on its website declaring it won’t discriminate against gay scouts. The troop has to decide by tomorrow whether to remove the statement.
In September, the families of Pack 442, which is based in Cloverly, Maryland (a small town less than 20 miles from the nation’s capital), anonymously voted and overwhelmingly approved to adopt a non-discrimination statement. According to Theresa Phillips, committee chair of Pack 442, the pack wanted Boy Scouts of America to know “we will not stand for the discrimination of homosexual minors or adults whatsoever.” Here’s the sentence causing the controversy:
Not long after the statement was posted, the National Capital Area Council (NCAC), one of the bigger local councils of the Boy Scouts of America, asked the pack to strike it from the website. “At first they [said] they would “allow” us to leave it up based on our right to freedom of speech. Now they are doing a 180 and basically asking us to either conform to BSA’s discriminatory policy or get out,” says Phillips.
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