GAY AND LESBIAN ATHEISTS AND HUMANISTS
The Freethought Alternative
P.O. Box 34635, Washington, DC 20043-4635
www.galah.org

February 19, 2001

For Immediate Release

Contact person: Tom Klem
tomonroad@yahoo.com
www.galah.org

ATHEISTS, HUMANISTS CALL FOR CONTINUED EFFORTS AGAINST DISCRIMINATION BY BOY SCOUTS

The decision by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to reject the charters of seven Illinois troops whose sponsors have opposed the BSA's policy of homophobic discrimination represents yet another ugly chapter in the behavior of the organization, noted Gay and Lesbian Atheists and Humanists (GALAH).

"The desperate and irrational nature of the Boy Scouts policy of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has been highlighted by this latest attempt to stifle dissent," GALAH Vice Chair Tom Klem said. "We hope and expect that some day, the BSA will act in the best interest of children and abolish its discriminatory policies against atheists, gays, and girls."

The BSA may have thought that the controversies over their discriminatory policies would end when the Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that the BSA was not subject to New Jersey's law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation for public accommodations. The Court erroneously ruled that the BSA is a private organization despite its congressional charter and the support it receives from local governments throughout the country.

However, even if efforts to change BSA policies do not immediately reverse the organization's discriminatory stance, they can have a positive effect on the moral education of boys. Boys in the programs need to hear from adults outside of the Boy Scouts that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, lack of religious belief, and sex are not based on moral imperatives, as claimed by the BSA, but rather on visceral prejudices. Cub and Boy Scouts need to learn that tolerance of difference and dissent are important American values.

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