A civil rights complaint on behalf of the cub scouts was filed against the Salt Lake City School Board today after the school refused to allow the cub scouts to meet at the school. The school informed the young boys that they were no longer welcome to hold meetings at the school because of the cub scouts ban on gay members. The school informed the cub scouts that the ban on homosexuals violated the schools anti-bias policy.
The ban made one of the school board members angry. Michael Clara says that the school is violating the “Boy Scout Act, which is a law that requires the schools to allow access to the Boy Scouts if they allow access to outside groups. Mr. Clara stated, ” They are using the resources of the school system to punish students who don’t agree with us. ” Mr. Clara says that he himself supports gay rights, but is against banning the cub scouts.
I think all this has gotten crazy. It has turned into a witch hunt. First of all the boys in cub scouts don’t make the decisions who to allow in. Secondly, that school allows other outside faith-based groups to meet there on a regular basis. Those faith-based groups have a similar opinion on homosexuality as the boy-scouts. If the schools intention is merely to prevent bias, shouldn't it also ban those groups? Personally, I think public schools that are paid for with American tax dollars don’t have the right to ban anyone without a proper vote. That school is not private property. They are practicing the exact same principle that claim to abhor. Discrimination.
They are discriminating against the cub scouts. They are allowing a belief that is contrary to that of the principal to dictate rules. The same rules do not apply to other groups. One has to look at this logically. Whether or not you agree with the cub scouts decision the application of this particular ban appears to be arbitrary. If you allow other groups with similar views to meet at the school, what grounds do you have in banning the Cub Scouts?
I personally do not support gay marriage. I am not going to hedge about that fact. I find it to be a general decline of societal values. With that said, If I was a publicly funded facility that accepts state tax dollars, I could not ban gay people from coming to my facility nor would I attempt to do so. I find the discrimination of that school to be anti-Christian. It does violate the civil rights of those boys, who are mostly Latino and Catholic. The parents of the boys feel that they are being victimized by a school system that is anti-catholic. How can a school ban a group, because it violates their anti-bias policy without violating their own rules?
The hypocrisy is stunning.
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