Two
days before an expected vote, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) will run a full-page ad
in the Dallas Morning News on Monday calling on the leadership at Boy
Scouts of America (BSA) to end its discriminatory policy prohibiting gay
people from Scouting and adopt a national non-discrimination standard.
Last week, BSA representatives indicated the organization would consider
changing the policy to instead allow local sponsoring organizations to
make their own decisions and potentially discriminate at the local
level.
“While the proposed change is a step in the right direction, we can’t
pretend that passing the buck to the local level will eliminate anti-gay
discrimination because it won't," said HRC communications vice
president Fred Sainz. “Generations of gay Americans have been told
they’re not good enough to join the Scouts, simply because of who they
are. BSA has an opportunity to change that this week by adopting a
non-discrimination policy. Scouting, which has played an important role
in American society, will be strengthened by that action."
The ad,
which will appear in the print edition of the newspaper Monday morning,
encourages readers to call on the BSA board to enact a nationwide
anti-discrimination policy. Currently the organization’s official
policy is to "not grant membership to individuals who are open or avowed
homosexuals" as Scouts or adult Scout Leaders.
On Friday, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation announced more
stringent criterion for its Corporate Equality Index. To receive a
perfect score in the future, companies would have to prohibit
philanthropic giving to non-religious organizations that have a written
policy of anti-gay discrimination, or permit its chapters, affiliates,
or troops to do so.