Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Philadelphia Evicts Boy Scouts for Prohibiting Gay Men Access to Boys

Homosexual city solicitor breaks 1929 "in perpetuity" agreement and said to pursue Scouts with "vengeance"

From "Philadelphia Boy Scouts to Lose Historic Building for Not Accepting Homosexuality" by Hilary White, posted 12/11/07 at Lifesite.org

The Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America will lose the lease on its historic premises for its refusal to bow to pressure from the homosexual lobby to accept homosexual members and leaders. The city has told the Scouts they will be evicted if they cannot come up with US $200,000 a year "market value" rent for the land on which their building sits. Until now, the Scouts had paid a nominal $1 per year lease fee although the youth organisation had originally owned the premises in 1929.

The famous Beaux Arts style building was built and paid for by the Scouts, and turned over to the city with the understanding that the Scouts would be allowed to remain in it rent-free "in perpetuity."

City solicitor Romulo L. Diaz Jr. gave Philadelphia's "Cradle of Liberty Council" of the Scouts until Monday this week to renounce their policy. The Cradle of Liberty Council is the largest Scouts council in Pennsylvania and is the third largest in the entire Boy Scouts of America. The "City of Brotherly Love" has told the Scouts they have until June 1 to vacate their historic building.

..."This is an organization that has done more good for more children in this crime-ravaged city than most of the other so-called charitable groups in the City of Brotherly Love...At a time when this city is awash in blood, and we need as many safe havens for our children as possible, Philadelphia decides to go after an organization that is politically uncomfortable."

An editorial appearing in the online edition of Investor's Business Daily asked, "Isn't it hypocritical, though, to be intolerant in the name of tolerance, to say that it's wrong to disapprove of the lifestyles of others but OK to condemn the religious and moral beliefs of others?"

"How is it that an organization that has done immeasurable good for tens of millions of boys becomes one of America's most notorious and dangerous hate groups?"

Read the rest of this article.