Members of Congress Call on Boy Scouts of America

Members of Congress Call on Boy Scouts of America to End Its Discrimination against Gays and Lesbians

WASHINGTON, February 2, 2010 – Twenty-six Members of the United States Congress last night urged the Boy Scouts of America to end its discriminatory policy of not accepting gays and lesbians.

A letter initiated by U.S. Representatives Gary Ackerman (D-NY) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), sent to the Chief Scout Executive of the Scouts, was sent in response to the Boy Scouts’ rejection of Cate and Elizabeth Wirth, a couple in Vermont who were told they could not volunteer for their 10 year old son’s Cub Scout pack after it was revealed that the women are lesbians.

In explaining the Boy Scouts’ national policy of excluding gays and lesbians as volunteers, their district director suggested that the Wirths would “push their lifestyle on the boys”.

“Regrettably, the current, discriminatory policy of the Boy Scouts of America has denied opportunities for young scouts, community-oriented citizens, and loving parents,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to Robert Mazzuca, the Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America.

“As you celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America, it is long past time that the Boy Scouts finally provide the opportunity for all Scouts, Leaders, and volunteers, to share in the joys of Scouting, regardless of sexual orientation.”

Rep. Ackerman, a proud Eagle Scout, continues to salute the tireless contributions of Scouts from throughout the nation – but he contends that the discriminatory policy of the organisation must change.

“I’ll always be a proud Eagle Scout, but this discriminatory policy must end” Rep. Ackerman said in a statement last night.

“Rejecting a Cub Scout’s mothers from volunteering just because of their sexual orientation doesn’t comply with the Scout law I recited at Scout meetings.”

Congresswoman Baldwin, the co-chair of the LGBT Equality Caucus, added: “Scouting is a proud and honourable tradition in this country, but discrimination is not.

“Children with same sex parents deserve the same opportunities to have their parents involved in their scouting experience as their classmates.

“I urge the Boy Scouts of America to end this discriminatory policy,” she added.

The letter was signed by a total of 26 Members of Congress. The full text of the letter and the signatories are HERE (pdf file).

Founded at the beginning of last century in England (1907), the Scouting movement is international, with Scout organisations in more than 200 countries and territories, with an estimated 28 million young people as members.

In recent years, the Movement has gone “co-ed”, with the USA holding out with separate Souts and Guides organisation. The USA has also been criticised within Scouting for its total “non-tolerance” of gay men and women, both youngsters and adult helpers. Boy Scouts of America, which was first formed in 1910, currently has more than 7.5 million youths. It also bans atheists and agnostics.

Across Europe, the Scouts have a robust diversity policies to tackle inclusion, it its widest sense. It even has lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender project workers among the adult helpers in UK.

ENDS

Originally published at http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/10/Feb/0201.htm

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