LGBT POV

Remember that June 2000 US Supreme Court case where the high court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America is a private religious organization and therefore has the right to discriminate against gays, atheists and agnostics? The American Civil Liberties Union followed up in August 2000 suing San Diego and the Boy Scouts on behalf of a lesbian couple and an agnostic couple – both with sons who might have otherwise enjoyed scouting. The ACLU sued after the San Diego City Council agreed to extend the BSA’s $1-a year 50-year lease on the parkland for another 25 years.

The City of Los Angeles voted to cut contractual ties with BSA as a result of the 2000 court ruling, only recently completing that severance between the LAPD and the BSA-run Explorer Scouts.

On Monday the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the BSA – letting stand a Ninth Circuit Court’s opinion in Boy Scouts v. Barnes-Wallace that the ACLU and the two couples have a right to sue to block the lease from going forward. The BSA built an estimate $4.9 million campsite and aquatic center that was open to the public for a fee. But the couples said the fee to use the area on public parkland amounted to a “toll payable to a discriminatory, religious organization to use public property.”

Ninth Circuit Court Judge Marsha Berzon wrote:

“There is not merely offense here but injury too. To use Camp Balboa and the Mission Bay Park Youth Aquatic Center, the plaintiffs must not just observe the presence of the Boy Scouts, but also interact with, seek permission from, and quite significantly, pay fees to, this same organization that believes them inferior in both morals and citizenship.”

In a statement, the BSA said they are “disappointed” but “respect” the high court’s decision, which “does not damage Boy Scouts’ case and is no reflection on the merits of its position. Boy Scouts is confident that it will prevail on its First Amendment rights and other constitutional defenses as the matter proceeds through the courts.”

Openly gay LA Police Commissioner Rob Saltzman looks like the distinguished USC legal academic he is. But on Tuesday, he emerged as a kind of Rachel Maddow-style Geek Superhero, catching the Boy Scouts of America-linked Learning for Life attorney in his attempt to flimflam the commission. After a decade of complaints from the LGBT community, the Police Commission finally agreed to sever ties between the LAPD and the BSA-Learning for Life Explorers Program. In two weeks, the LAPD must come back with a detailed plan for its own youth program. Click inside for details – and red flag warnings.

Tomorrow morning, the Los Angeles Police Commission will once again hold a public hearing concerning the connection between the LAPD’s Explorers Program and the Boy Scouts of America, which proudly and legally discriminates against LGBT people. A new opinion by LA City Attorney Carmen Trutanich calls for the LAPD to sever ties to the Boy Scouts – but that’s not as easy as it may sound. For at least 8 years since the LA City Council first ordered the LAPD to sever ties, the LA Police Commission has dodged the issue. I argue here that by failing to sever ties, the Police Commission is complicit with the Boys Scouts’ bigotry and is continuing to fail LGBT youth. Click inside for my argument.