July 16, 2006

Sea Scouts violate Berkley anti-discrimination laws

AP Wire | 07/11/2006 | Sea Scouts appeal speech ruling
SAN FRANCISCO - The Berkeley Sea Scouts asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to overturn a lower court decision requiring the group to pay berthing fees at the Berkeley Marina.
The California Supreme Court ruled in March that Berkeley did not violate the rights of the youth sailors connected to the Boy Scouts of America when it demanded marina fees because the group violates a city anti-discrimination policy.
The city revoked free berthing privileges for the Berkeley Sea Scouts because the Boy Scouts bar atheist and gay members, which violates the city's 1997 policy to provide free berthing to nonprofits that don't discriminate.
City officials told the Sea Scouts that the group could retain its berthing subsidy, valued at about $500 monthly per boat, if it broke ties with the Boy Scouts or disavowed the policy against gays and atheists.
The Sea Scouts, which teaches sailing, carpentry and plumbing, refused to do so and maintained that such an edict was unconstitutional.

While I think scouting does provide some really good things for kids and does have real value, I'm not sorry to see them penalized for their bigotry and intolerance.

Posted by pqbon at July 16, 2006 6:18 PM
Comments

As an Eagle scout myself, I have to agree. It sucks that individual Scout troops have to make the decision to ignore the rules. Note that the Sea Scouts in Berkeley didn't discriminate, but did admit that if the overall Scouting organization required them to, they would have to comply.

My old Troop had great leeway about these things -- they were secondary to the true value of Scouts. I've even written about this before:

http://www.hopeisnotaplan.com/2006/02/not_so_prepared.html

Posted by: parakkum at July 16, 2006 8:16 PM