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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

The anti-discrimination merit badge

Hoosier take on Boy Scouts ban

Mike Craw joined the Cub Scouts at age 8. Over the next 10 years, he earned merit badges, adhered to Boy Scout traditions and eventually received the highly sought-after Eagle Scout award. Craw then spent four years in college working as an assistant Scoutmaster.\n"For me, it was not just a program for making friends or learning about how to pitch a tent or administer first aid," Craw said. "Scouting helped to mold my values, showed me both how to work in teams and how to be self-reliant, and encouraged me to be an active citizen."\nRecently, the national Boy Scouts organization, Boy Scouts of America, has come under scrutiny for its sexual orientation and religious discrimination policy. In June, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to make it official: Boy Scouts nationwide have every right to choose who can join and who can't.\nCraw and several other local Scouts decided they'd had enough.\nAt a Bloomington rally Aug. 21, six Eagle Scouts -- some straight and some homosexual-- turned over their Eagle Scout awards as a protest of the discrimination policy. Craw, who said he regretted being out of town the day of the rally, handed over his award as soon as he returned.\n"Scouting plays an important role in passing on values to the next generation," Craw said. "In discriminating against gay and atheist people, BSA is sending a very destructive message to our youth."\nAfter the rally, Craw took his concerns and joined forces with two other former Scouts -- IU alumni John Clower and David Horne -- to form Hoosiers for Inclusive Scouting. The group aims to combat religious and sexual orientation discrimination within the Hoosier Trails Council, the 18-county council that oversees Boy Scout troops in Bloomington and the surrounding areas. \n"Our ultimate goal is to influence the Hoosier Trails Council to enact a nondiscrimination statement, as other Boy Scouts of America councils around the country have done, that specifically forbids discrimination by sexual orientation and religious belief," said Hoosiers for Inclusive Scouting co-coordinator David Horne. "If they refuse, which we plan on, then we will most likely be taking actions against them."\nSuch actions could include additional protests and rallies at the local Boy Scouts office, public forums to promote awareness and requests for regional donors to halt Boy Scout funding until an anti-discrimination agreement is reached.\n"The point is to persuade local Boy Scouts and the local groups and individuals who support Boy Scouts to make it known to BSA's leadership that they want the organization to cease practicing religious and sexual orientation discrimination," said Clower, the third coordinator of Hoosiers for Inclusive Scouting.\nThe local movement\nIn the month following the August rally, Bloomington saw both sides of the controversy sparring for control of the situation. It appeared to most spectators that the Boy Scouts would be able to stand their ground.\nTwo weeks ago, those in support of Scouting equality celebrated a minor victory when the United Way of Monroe County voted to pass an anti-discrimination policy. Because the Hoosier Trails Council refused to sign the policy, it will no longer receive a percentage of the general United Way fund each year. Instead, the only way local Boy Scouts can benefit from contributions is through the designated donation program, where benefactors must specify to which charity they want their money to go. The Boy Scouts could lose up to $22,000 of United Way support this year.\nEllen Brantlinger, IU professor of education, became accidentally involved with the United Way debate after she read about the Boy Scout ban on homosexual and atheist leaders three years ago. When she gave her donation that year, she asked that none of it be given to the organization. \nBrantlinger was then called in for a meeting with several other donors to discuss their decision not to support the Boy Scouts.\n"(They) made the case that the Boy Scouts did good work," Brantlinger said. "I and the others protested, saying their work was undermined by their discriminatory policy."\nHoosier Trails Scout Executive Randy Brown has a different point of view on the issue. Brown said he believes the entire situation has been blown out of proportion over the past few years. \n"Boy Scouts of America has not changed its policy," Brown said. "The change was that people who had an agenda to meet started suing us because of our position."\nBrown said he believes the Boy Scouts are being targeted to make a political statement.\n"The BSA was not the one who initiated any of this action from beginning to end," Brown said. "We were being used to make a point to the public by a small group of folks. We just didn't roll over, because this is what we believe."\nBrown, who has been involved in scouting for more than 30 years, worked in two metropolitan areas and four smaller communities before coming to Bloomington. He says he has never encountered a case of sexual orientation discrimination in that time.\n"I've never removed a child or an adult for homosexual behavior," Brown said. "We have had in excess of 4,000 volunteers, and that's not been an issue."\nMoreover, he added, "what kid who's age 8 knows that he is a homosexual?"\nTo help counter Hoosier Trails loss of United Way funding, Indianapolis conservative activist Eric Miller launched a pro-Boy Scouts campaign last week. Miller, executive director of Advance America, is encouraging people to give money to Hoosier Trails in an effort he is calling "Operation Be Prepared." \nFormer IU basketball star Kent Benson is lending his clout to Miller's cause.\n"I'm supporting the Boy Scouts of America," said Benson, a Boy Scout himself. "I believe in Advance America and the causes for which Eric Miller stands, particular this Boy Scout situation."\nBenson hopes the contributions received through Operation Be Prepared will be enough to balance out the $22,000 United Way loss.\n"It's amazing how many different standards they have (at the United Way) and how they come to the conclusions they come to," Benson said. "Our goal is to make sure the Boy Scouts still have the support they need."\nThe national front\nThe entire country has begun to feel the heat from both sides of this controversy, as well.\nAfter three years of pursuing legislation against the Boy Scouts' discrimination policy, U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) introduced her Scouting for All Act to Congress in July.\n"The Boy Scouts' mission according to its charter is to teach boys," Woolsey said in a statement to the press. "That's not discrimination, that's defining a mission. What is discrimination is deciding that some boys are OK and some are not."\nThe bill, which was voted down Sept. 13, would have revoked the Boy Scouts' congressional charter, an honorary title given to organizations that serve charitable, patriotic or educational purposes. More than 90 organizations, including the Girl Scouts of America and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, hold congressional charters.\nEven though Woolsey was not successful in her campaign, other major groups around the country are taking notice of this situation.\nAfter one Manhattan school withdrew its support for the Boy Scouts, officials in New York began to question the propriety of having a discriminatory organization within the school, according to a Sept. 28 The New York Times article. New York schools are trying to work out an anti-discrimination agreement between the city and its local Boy Scout council.\nWhile some are trying to compromise, others are sticking to their guns.\nLast week, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) introduced a bill called the Scouts Honor Act, which would prohibit the use of federal funds to discriminate against, investigate or deny public property access to the Boy Scouts of America. The bill also states that no entity that accepts federal funding can force the Boy Scouts to accept members who do not share their values and beliefs. Local Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.) has signed on as a co-sponsor of this bill.\nWith the all the confusion and controversy surrounding this issue, many people believe there is no room for change within the Boy Scouts.\nBut Steve Sanders, Indiana state coordinator for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and lesbian political organization, believes the organization will alter its message.\n"I think eventually they will change, though it may take 10 or 20 years," Sanders said. "Society is coming very rapidly to understand that homosexuality is, for most people, simply the way they are born, and that there is nothing inherently wrong about it. There will always be a minority who will insist on believing what they want to believe and who simply aren't interested in facts or science, and the longer the Boy Scouts maintain this policy, the more marginalized they will become in many people's eyes."\n"It's unfortunate for them," Sanders continued, "that right now, through their own doing, being an anti-gay organization is probably the thing they are best known for nationally"

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