Four years ago, the city of Philadelphia realized that they were giving a huge subsidy to a community organization to help them serve the citizens of the City of Brotherly Love even though that group systematically discriminated against a large part of the population.  So the city told the Boy Scouts of America’s Cradle of Liberty council that they would either have to change their anti-LGBT policies or begin paying fair-market rent for the city-owned, half-acre property that the group had been using as their headquarters for nearly 80 years.  Not surprisingly, the Boy Scouts didn’t like that.

Fast forward, past lawsuits and negotiations, to today and the outcome is not a happy one.  A federal jury ruled that evicting the council would “infringe on the private group’s right to free association,” according to an NPR article.  So rather than appeal, the city is going to sell the property — valued at more than a million dollars — to the scouts for a mere $500,000.  So, while the city will no longer be supporting the hateful policies of the Boy Scouts, this freedom comes at a cost.

While I certainly acknowledge the Boy Scouts’ right to say who can and cannot be a part of their private organization, I strongly feel that the government should not have to subsidize their bigotry.  Whether by letting the council use the building essentially rent-free or by selling it to them outright for less than half what it’s worth, that’s exactly what the city is being forced to do.  And the city of Philadelphia should be there for all its residents, not just the straight ones.

Tags: boy scouts, bsa, discrimination, gay, glbt, lgbt, philadelphia, scouting

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 18th, 2010 at 11:00 am and is filed under LGBT Parenting, Money and Finance, Parenting Issues, Parenting News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.