CNN.com - Despite promise, gay Boy Scout ousted - Jun. 12, 2003: Philadelphia's Boy Scout council, which defied the national organization last month by promising not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, has ousted a Scout for publicly announcing he is gay. Gregory Lattera, 18, said he learned of the decision on Saturday when he got a letter from the Cradle of Liberty Council, which runs the Boy Scout programs in Philadelphia and two suburban counties. The same council, the nation's third largest, voted May 28 to add sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy.
So less than a month after, with moderate fanfare, they make a point of defying the national organization, they do THIS? What the hell?
"He decided to hold a press conference to come out as a member of the gay community," said William T. Dwyer, the chief executive of the council and one of the officials who signed the letter. "Our staff knew he was gay and never made a big deal about it. He decided to make a big deal about it. The don't-ask, don't-tell policy is pretty clear."
However, the policy adopted in May did not make any mention of gays not being allowed to make their sexual orientation public knowledge.
You know, without that being explicit in the policy, they couldn't reasonably have expected him to know that. Moreover, it would render the policy meaningless on its face. They'll probably compare it to the military policy, but the distinction between the two is really fairly clear. The military says, "We won't ask (but we do, because we don't give a rat's ass about what we're supposed to do in that case, but we know we're not supposed to), and you don't tell, because we DO discriminate, and if we find out, we'll kick your ass out of here." The Philadelphia scouts policy is, effectively, "We won't discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Unless you actually tell us about it, in which case, you're outta here." I suppose it's impossible to discriminate on the basis of facts unknown, isn't it? The Philadelphia scout council wants to be the equivalent of Sgt Schultz on Hogan's Heroes -- "I see nothing! I know nothing! NOTHING!" -- but it's kind of hard to manage that with written policies that say, "If we see it, we don't care!"
Lattera spoke publicly about his homosexuality and criticized the Boy Scouts' anti-gay stance during the organization's national meeting, held last month in Philadelphia. [...] Duane Perry, a gay rights leader who was involved in discussions between the United Way and the local scout council for two years, said David H. Lipson Jr., chairman of the council's executive board, told him pressure from the national organization had been intense. "He told me they threatened to revoke the charter and replace the board if the policy wasn't changed," Perry said.
Lipson said the local council wants to work with the national organization. "At this time, we want to work with the national council to slowly, methodically bring about change," Lipson said. "But whatever the national policies are, we want to stay within that policy."
And that, frankly, is probably the crux of the matter. Somehow, they seem to have thought the national council would just let them do what they wanted. Maybe they'd get a bit pissy about it in public, but otherwise, they'd be ignored. But you can't ignore it when your third-largest section decides to defy you in public. Any reasonable person would have realized that there would be consequences and would have prepared for them. Clearly, Philadelphia's scout council didn't. And, of course, given the Supreme Court decision on these matters, if the national council had voted to expel Philadelphia -- and they almost certainly would have -- then the local would have had no real choice but to change their nondiscrimination policy or accept the expulsion.
I would also imagine that, because Lattera spoke publicly at the national meeting -- thinking, that because of the Philadelphia nondiscrimination policy, he was invulnerable -- the Philadelphia council also came under heavy pressure to make an example of Lattera, specifically. One suspects that Philadelphia was hoping that he would just go quietly, and then they could also very quietly withdraw the sexual orientation nondiscrimination clause, and maybe nobody would notice. Utter and absolute fools, they are.
Mind, what they've done is seriously impressive. In one month, the Philadelphia council has managed to inflict the maximum damage on themselves that they could do over this matter. When they announced the policy, one suspects that they lost the children of more conservative parents, and the dollars of more conservative donors. Then they did this public flipflop, and will lose people and dollars because of that. They've managed to put themselves in the position of being held in deepest contempt by both sides of the debate. That's a really impresive feat to manage in less than a month.
Posted by iain at June 13, 2003 12:08 PMComments
