by United Church of Christ
by Walter Brasch
Harry Strausser III owns a
successful small business with 25 employees in Bloomsburg, Pa. As an
undergraduate, he was a national champion in several forensics categories, and
represented the Boy Scouts of America in national competitions sponsored by the
Reader's Digest. As a graduate
student, he coached a college forensics team. He has never been arrested or
suspected of any crime.
Strausser is an Eagle Scout.
He is also gay. The National Council of the Boy Scouts of America says he
doesn't have the right "core values" to be a Scout leader.
Denny Meyer, who lives in New
York City, wasn't a Scout, but often tagged along with his older brother to
Scout meetings. During college, Meyer, the son of Holocaust refugees, enlisted
in the Navy in 1968 "to pay my country back for my family's freedom." After
four years, he had quickly advanced to Petty Officer Second Class (E-5), got a
job as a civilian with the Department of the Army, and enlisted in the Army
Reserve, rising to the rank of Sergeant First Class (E-7). He later worked in
international sales and office administration.
Meyer had to pass rigorous
background checks to serve in two branches of the Armed Forces, but he can't pass
the background checks become a Boy Scout leader because he's gay.
Gregory Bourke is a mainframe
computer programmer and analyst in Louisville, Ky. He had been a Scout for
almost three years. His 15-year-old son is a Life Scout who has finished most
of his requirements to be an Eagle Scout. His 14-year-old daughter is a Girl Scout.
He has been a leader in her troop for eight years; he had been an assistant
Scoutmaster for five years. Last September, he received a special Legislative
Citation from the Kentucky House of representatives honoring him for his
community involvement and dedication to Scouting.
Bourke is no longer with the
Boy Scouts. His local Council, against strong opposition from his troop and the
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic church, which sponsors both the Girl Scout and Boy
Scout troops, ordered him to resign because he's gay, and threatened to pull
the church's Scouting charter if Bourke didn't resign. The Girl Scouts, like
the 4H Club, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and numerous other
organizations, has no discriminatory policies, and Bourke's church is pleased
he continues as Girl Scouts leader
In contrast, the Boy Scouts
have a long history of allowing local councils to discriminate against racial,
ethnic, and religious minorities. It wasn't until 1974 that the national
organization finally ended racial discrimination. In 1991, with the emergence
of a "family values" conservative movement, the Boy Scouts formalized a policy
to exclude gays from membership and leadership positions. The existing position
is that the BSA believes "homosexual conduct is inconsistent with the
requirement in the Scout Oath that a Scout be morally straight and in the Scout
Law that a Scout be clean in word and deed, and that homosexuals do not provide
a desirable role model for Scouts." Nine years later, the Supreme Court, by a
5--4 vote largely along political lines, said that the Boy Scouts of America was
a private organization and had every right to discriminate.
Several Fortune 500
corporations--including Alcoa, Caterpillar, CVS, Dow Chemical, General Electric,
General Mills, Intel, Levi Strauss, 3M, UPS, and Verizon--have suspended funding
to the BSA.
Although local United Way
agencies have the autonomy to decide whether or not to continue to provide
funds to the BSA, the national organization has reaffirmed its principle that
"embraces inclusiveness, diversity, and equal opportunity as part of our core
values, Code of Ethics, and human resource policies." Keri Albright, president
of the Greater Susquehanna Valley United Sway (Pa.), like more than 50 other
United Way local organizations, has suspended Boy Scout funding, and argues
that "accepting gays is not in conflict with having good values."
Faced by significant income
loss, the Boy Scouts last Summer rethought their position about excluding gays
from membership. A backlash by the right-wing, which also threatened to pull
funding and membership, slapped them back into their policy of discrimination.
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