Boy Scouts

WE STRONGLY object to your editorial encouraging individual donations to the Cradle of Liberty Council, and to your assertion that the council "has consistently tried to do the right thing in a difficult situation. " The right thing to do "for the sake of the kids" would have been to keep Gregory Lattera in the organization after he spoke out. By giving in to the discrimination of the Boy Scouts of America, the council set a horrible example for every child, leader and parent in the Philadelphia region, and the Daily News sets an even worse example by encouraging support for an organization that discriminates on the basis of religious belief and sexual orientation.

A Huntingdon Valley man has decided to drop a lawsuit against the Valley Forge Council of the Boy Scouts of America, according to Doylestown lawyer Robert J. Gleason. John Vassollo of the 300 block of Welsh Road dropped his lawsuit against the Valley Forge Council of the Boy Scouts of America last week, Gleason said. Vassollo filed the suit in Montgomery County Court in July 1988, claiming $20,000 in punitive damages and unspecified damages of $40,000 after he broke his ankle when he and his son, Matthew, were leaving a camping trip held on the Boy Scouts Delmont Scout Camp, in Green Lane.

A Delaware man Wednesday sued the Boy Scouts of America and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over childhood sexual abuse committed by the scoutmaster at his church-sponsored troop. Melvin Novak filed the lawsuit in state court in Philadelphia, charging that newly released Boy Scout "perversion files" support his claim that the organization hid abuse complaints for years. "They knew about this conduct, they knew what was going on, and they covered it up in the most despicable way," attorney Stewart J. Eisenberg said at a news conference attended by Novak and his father.

Gay scouts and scout leaders will have to remain in the shadows for now due to the Boy Scouts of America's decision Tuesday to cling to its unenlightened policy of barring openly gay members and scoutmasters. By reaffirming its exclusionary policy after a secretive internal review, the Boy Scouts missed a chance to put scouting back on the right foot. At a time when the nation's views on same-sex marriage are shifting toward acceptance, and when the U.S. military has dropped its ban on gay soldiers, the Boy Scouts' national leaders are keeping scouting rooted in the past.

Boy Scouts, satellite dishes and street lights were the order of the day for the Cheltenham Township commissioners this week. At a meeting Tuesday night, the Board of Commissioners: Granted permission for Cheltenham Boy Scout Troop 321 to lease a Colonial-era, township-owned stone house at 409 Ashbourne Rd. in Tookany Park, the troop's first new home in 27 years. Approved an amendment to the township zoning ordinance regulating satellite dishes. Approved a pilot program to install 70 to 80 sodium vapor street lights.

CHRISTINE Flowers hit the nail on the head in her Dec. 7 op-ed about the city evicting the Boy Scouts from their headquarters. Being politically correct isn't always right. In an op-ed in the Inquirer on June 6, I wrote that a change in the BSA's anti-gay policy is needed, but must come from within. Please, Philadelphia, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. This story is now national news. The New York Times published a lengthy story on Dec. 6. The anti-discrimination policy of the Cradle of Liberty Council was based on the policy of the New York Scouting Organization.

AMID THE latest firestorm of pedophilia charges against the Roman Catholic priesthood, the media has been grinding its ax fast and furious against the church's celibacy requirement. Either the celibacy rule is "attracting too many homosexuals," creating a bountiful feeding ground for child sex-abusers, or turning too many heterosexual priests into sexually psychotic predators. Ironically, just a few years ago, the media said the Boy Scouts of America had too few homosexuals among its leadership ranks.

TWO HUNDRED eighty-seven murders to date, the latest a 5-year-old girl simply sitting in the back seat of her mother's car on a Sunday drive. But what are the mayor and City Council worried about, where is their focus? It is on those horrible, highly taxed cigarette smokers and the Boy Scouts. Smoking is a terrible, life-threatening habit, one I've been trying to give up for years, but to rush through a bill like this when our children are being shot to death is ridiculous.

Pa. must step up on city schools The city schools' financial troubles are not new, yet reactions to the School District's latest request for aid - $60 million more from the city, $120 million from the state - were met with surprise. While I expected an emergency funding request, I did not anticipate - and will not accept - the continued absence of a commitment from state officials to address the plight of Philadelphia's schools. Philadelphia's state delegation has long fought for our schools, but this isn't about just us. As the state's greatest economic engine, the fates of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania are linked.

The Nutter administration and the Boy Scouts of America Cradle of Liberty Council have reached a settlement that will end a five-year court battle sparked by the scouts' national policy banning openly gay members. Because of that policy, the city sought to evict the scouts from their longtime home in a building on city property near Logan Square. A federal jury said in 2010 that doing so would violate the group's First Amendment rights. The city's appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit was pending.

Philadelphia's Boy Scouts of America chapter has proposed changing the organization's national policy to give local units autonomy in deciding whether to allow gay people to serve as scout leaders. "This amendment was designed to better accommodate the full diversity of the local community," read a statement released Thursday by the Cradle of Liberty Council, which represents 17,000 scouts in Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties. The proposal comes in advance of the national Boy Scouts' expected vote May 23 that could change the current ban on gay members and leaders.

THERE IS something about a late March snowstorm, a gentle finger wagging at us from heaven saying "I'm not finished yet. " There is something maddening in the thought that we do not control the seasons, that all our human capital amounts to nothing in the face of the winds and the rising tides and the steel-colored clouds. It is wholly appropriate that such things happen during this week of miracles, when Jews celebrate deliverance and Christians resurrection. It's a wakeup call that life is gloriously unpredictable.

WHO CAN RESIST a woman in uniform? Probably a lot of people when that woman is Madonna and the uniform she's wearing belongs to the Boy Scouts, for whom there is no "Express Yourself" merit badge. Madonna, of course, is trying to change that, so she dressed in a uni and called on the Boy Scouts to lift its ban on gays, while also calling for a "revolution" to prevent discrimination and abuse of the gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual community. Speaking Saturday night at the GLAAD Media Awards, Madonna joked that she wanted to become a part of the Boy Scouts herself, but was turned down, even though she had the qualifications.

A SEISMIC SHIFT is occurring in the entertainment firmament. Justin Bieber has been booed in London. The Biebs, who's 19 now but sings to a legion of girls just a few years removed from "Sesame Street," apologized Tuesday to his young fans - and their PO'd parents - after they accused him of taking the stage inconsiderately late for a concert. Bieber insisted that he was only 40 minutes behind schedule, and blamed "technical issues," but show time on the ticket for his roughly 90-minute gig was 8:30 (the O2 Arena said that he was due to go on at 9:30)

NASHVILLE, TENN. - The nation's largest Protestant group is calling on members of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America to uphold a ban on gay Scouts and leaders when it votes in May. The executive committee of the 16-million member Southern Baptist Convention passed the resolution Tuesday, stating that a proposal to alter the ban would "place the Boy Scouts organization at odds with a consistent biblical worldview on matters of...

NASHVILLE - The nation's largest Protestant group is calling on members of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America to uphold a ban on gay scouts and leaders when it votes in May. The executive committee of the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention passed the resolution Tuesday, stating that a proposal to alter the ban would "place the Boy Scouts organization at odds with a consistent biblical worldview on matters of human sexuality, making...