From Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,164547,00.html
“Critics of the Boy Scouts, like the American Civil Liberties Union, make one strong argument against the organization’s private status. The Boy Scouts enjoys massive and unique tax-funded support from governments both local and federal. On the local level, for example, the city of San Diego was targeted because it allowed the Boy Scouts’ headquarters to operate in a city-owned park for $1 per year and to use other city-owned facilities without any rent. On the federal level, the Pentagon provided an estimated $6 to $8 million from 1997 to 2001 to assist a Boy Scouts Jamboree — an event which is traditionally held on military bases.”

In some cities, public accommodation laws require that organizations, employers, restaurants, hotels, etc. not discriminate against people based on sexual orientation. That’s partly the reason why the Scouts were stopped from using San Diego’s publicly-owned park.

It could be argued that the Boy Scouts are a “public accommodation” because:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/bsa_1.htm
The BSA is the largest youth movement in the world. Between 1992 and 1996, the BSA total assets in the U.S. increased from 277 million to 441 million dollars.
BSA’s federal charter obligates them to serve all boys.
Other than discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and religious belief, BSA has no barriers to membership. It aggressively recruit new members.
Many troops are sponsored by government agencies (e.g. public schools, military base, fire department) and thus cannot discriminate on the basis of religion.
Federal laws have been passed to allow the military to provide transportation for Scouts and to loan them equipment without charge. Every national Boy Scout jamboree since 1981 has been held on a military base.
All recent presidents of the U.S. have been honorary presidents of the BSA.
Many local councils receive substantial funding from the United Way. Such United Ways have a national and local policy of not ordinarily funding any charitable organization which discriminates on a basis of religion or sexual orientation. Some United Ways have stopped funding the Boy Scouts. However, many still continue such funding.
BSA operates and licenses retail stores to sell Scouting materials and literature to both BSA members and the general public.
Groups that are much smaller and private than the Boy Scouts have been recognized as public accommodations. One example is Big Brothers of the National Capital Area.

As for the atheist mother, give it a break. Sorry your kid can’t join, but I’m sure there are plenty of other orgs your kid can join. Does that mean none of the other children should be denied the opportunity of learning about the BSA? That’s like saying unless every child can participate, you can’t promote the program at our school. I guess we’ll need to take football out of all our high schools, as girls typically don’t play that sport.

Why not support the BSA and other organizations to help build community and the character of our children.

And Brett… show me where the Boy Scouts receive public funding–they don’t. If you find it, send it to me at teamrecess@yahoo.com.

An intersting read is the book “Scouts Honor” which gives a fair treatment of the issue.

The issue I have is they are publicly funded yet claim to be a private membership. Why are my tax dollars going to something that is discriminatory towards a minority?

Take away public funding and this issue will be put to rest.

Don, “if parents taught the morals the BS stand for”? Is that what the baby boomers did and we ended up with the sexual revolution of the 60′s? People need to stop with this holier then thou crap.

But you do got to remember that kids don’t understand this and just want to go have fun and play with their friends. But kids should not be forced to think the way the parents do. Some of these kids will say stuff and as you talk to them they have no real opinion to this but that their parents tell them how to think and that is wrong.

I think Matt would have been better to quote from the BSA’s first Handbook, in which the new organization promised the American people “That every American boy shall have the opportunity of becoming a good scout.” Yet, within four short years, the BSA broke that promise by allowing local councils to ban boys from becoming members because they happened to be African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, immigrants, or whatever the local council felt was detrimental to the image of Scouting in the local community. It was not until the NAACP sued the BSA in 1974 that the last BSA council dismantled its segregated scouting program. One also must recall that the last council to drop its ban on African Americans was in 1942!

So, the BSA has a long history of discrimination. At least 64 years of supporting Jim Crow across the country. And while the CSE in the NAACP lawsuit pledged that the organization would not discriminate on the basis of race, one has only to look at the BSA’s oral arguments in Dale (2000) to realize that the basis for the BSA’s 1914 racial policy has not changed. In 1914, the BSA felt that if African Americans (and other ethnic minorities) were allowed to join, then their very presence as Scouts in the local community would send a message that the BSA approved of individuals that the community considered to be social inferiors. In 2000, this is the same argument the BSA made before the US Supreme Court. If New Jersey forced the BSA to accept gay youth, then the BSA believed that a message would be sent to the local community that gay youth/adults are not inferior. A message that the BSA vehemently did not wish to send.

Recently, the BSA has argued in federal courts that because of the Dale case, it is not bound by racial discrimination laws and may discriminate on the basis of race, because it is a private religious youth organization. The most recent National Camping Standards have reversed the BSA’s position that it is not bound by the ADA and that councils should feel free to build new facilities that take do not make any provisions for scouts physically disabled.

So, before you start blasting Matt, you might want to find out when the BSA will fulfill its promise it made to the American public in 1910. From their recent actions, it seems that the BSA will be very similar to the KKK – a White Heterosexual Anglo-Saxon Protestant only organization. In that case, it too will go the way of the KKK. One can only hope that the Congress will revoke its charter and allow other organizations to develop that wish to offer scouting to ALL American boys.

BSA does not have a discrimination policy. They have a policy of extending membership to heterosexual individuals and those that believe in a higher being, God, only. Your use of the word “discrimination” is an attempt convince people BSA has some sort of ill will toward the gay and atheistic members of our society. Not true! In truth and to express it in Scouting parlance, it’s more of a “We don’t walk the same path” policy. That is all there is to it.

“Working with the Boy Scouts dangerous and obviously wrong”. There’s that trick again, “obviously wrong”. Schools working with Boy Scouts is a very natural thing. Scouting promotes scholarship and always has. Why wouldn’t schools encourage membership in an organization which forwards the same ideas as they do? This is a healthy alliance as is the gay-straight alliance mentioned in your article.

Concerning the mention of a KKK club in your article I would like to point out many schools have an African-American, Hispanic or some club based on ethnicity. What would happen if students wanted to form an Caucasian club? I have serious doubts that it would ever be allowed by administrators as it would be deemed “racist.” In wondering, are Caucasian students allowed to join African-American clubs? If not, it would seem they discriminate.

In your next-to-last paragraph you imply BSA is working against it’s original Congressional Charter. You go so far as to quote a passage from that charter which ends in the words “kindred virtues”. The virtues referred to include the support of the traditional, nuclear family. BSA still upholds this idea as a proven way to live a healthy, productive life. At no point has BSA said it is the only way. It is the way they have chosen and it is a choice upheld by the highest court of our land!

Maybe if the school continues to provide a venue for the BSA or allows them to pass out literature, the mother in question could pass out pamphlets for Camp Inquiry and volunteer atheists could attend the class to explain what the camp is about and invite the first graders to attend!