Watertown— The June 28, 2000 Supreme Court Case between Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, made possible for organizations such as Boy Scouts to exclude members as a part of “freedom of association.”
The Supreme Court ruling, that the Boy Scouts of America is covered under “freedom of association” enabled the group to have a ban on gay members without having it considered discrimination.
“The Boy Scouts struggled for a long time on membership standards,” said Vice President of Public Affairs for the Longhouse Council Boys Scouts, Scott Armstrong. “We have 2.7 million members nationally with a lot of different opinions. I think you are seeing how Boy Scouts and many other organizations are trying to come to grips with changing views. We’re trying to make sure that we’re being fair, at the core of doing what’s best for the youth that we serve.”
Yesterday, the Boy Scouts of America continued to withhold the exclusion of gay members pushing an actual vote until May. Mr. Armstrong went on to explain that the various different opinions caused the vote to be pushed back. There are 116,000 scouting units nationally and all represented by a charted organization. The Longhouse Council’s main focus is to keep delivering excellent programs to the youth that they serve.
Longhouse Council represents 6,000 youth and 3,000 adult leaders in Cayuga, Onondaga, Oswego, Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Lewis Counties.
