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Activist Groups Urge Obama to Reject Boy Scout Honor
From Fox News:
Activist groups, including Scouting for All, urge President Obama not to accept the honorary Presidency of the Boy Scouts of America until they stop discriminating.
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Additional Suggestions for Leading a Protest
SEND LETTERS TO PRESIDENT OBAMA ASKING HIM TO STEP DOWN AS THE HONORARY CHIEF EXECUTIVE SCOUT
The President of the United States should not be supporting an organization which discriminates against gay
youth and adults and atheists.
A Letter to the President of the U.S. from an English Friend
Mr. President,
Dear Sir,
I have received today a copy of a letter the original of which was sent to you from the Eagle Scout Steven Cozza
in connection with his campaign to change the policy of the Boy Scouts of America so that it will no longer discriminate
against gay boys amd leaders. I feel honoured to have been involved in Steven's campaign. To me he represents all
that is fine in the youth of your country. Though not gay himself he as fought with tenacity for the removal of
a policy which he is convinced is wrong. I admire the strength and support which he has received from his family.
The recent Supreme Court decision has established that it is legal for the Boy Scouts of America to discriminate
against gay boys and leaders. Accepting that this judgement gives them the right so to do does not, ipso facto,
give approval to that policy. I, now aged 67 years, have been a life long member of the Scout Movement, and in
my youth, like Steven, held its highest scout award as a Kings Scout. Here in England our Scout Association as
no policy of discrimination. Our Movement is open to gay boys and also contains the gay leaders who are so important
as positive role models. All are tied by the Promise and Law of the Scout Movement. Our gay scouts and leaders
would be much offended if it was suggested that they were other than true Scouts or were morally inferior. Since
the Supreme Court has given the Boy Scouts of America the right to discriminate if it so wishes then the decision
to continue to discriminate is an exercise of that right, and positive discrimination against gay boys and leaders
becomes an act of policy. Under such circumstances, Sir, I
cannot see how you, as a World leader who has publicly supported all moves to remove discrimination from society,
can add the Presidential Seal of Approval to an organisation which as an act of policy supports the very practices
that your leadership condemns. Sir, as a humble petitioner from another country, I ask you to throw the weight
of your authority behind the courageous stand of this young American Eagle Scout and offer your resignation as
Honorary President of the Boy Scouts of America until such times as the policy is reversed.
I remain,
Sir,
Yours faithfully,
Andrew G Dickson, B.Sc., Ch.Biol., MIBiol.
I hope that my letter will be just one of many which he will receive. Keep up the good work. You are doing a great
job.
Yours in Scouting,
Andy.
(A Letter from a Scouting For All Supporter)
Dear President Clinton (now Obama),
You have long shown yourself to be a proud ally of the disenfranchised and marginalized in American society. As
such, I expect you would be appalled when an organization such as the Boy Scouts of America chooses to glory in
intolerance and ignorance by gleefully embracing its "private organization" right to exclude gays, lesbians,
bisexuals and transgendered persons, as well as those who support them, from membership.
Many fair-minded Scouts and Scouters have tried to work for change from within the BSA for tolerance -- not only
of the
sexual-minority community, but also of those who do not espouse one of the BSA's "accepted" religious
doctrines -- only to be
summarily dismissed for their dissent. Clearly BSA does not practice, or reward in its members, the very values
of honesty,
fairness toward and tolerance of others, and forthrightness that it claims to teach them.
In the past ten days this organization, chartered by the United States Congress, eager recipient of enormous governmental
support and funding at levels ranging from the local to the federal, has very publicly rejoiced in a Supreme Court
decision that gives it the rights of a private organization to discriminate against whomever it pleases, and their
supporters. Such bigotry and hypocrisy make a mockery of the American flag the BSA so proudly wraps itself in.
As the honorary "chief Scout" of the United States, your refusal to stand by the Scouts' discriminatory
and ignorant "values" would send a significant message of inclusiveness. Please dissociate yourself and
your Presidency from further titular or personal involvement in the Boy Scouts of America until such time as they
choose to incorporate within their own organization the values to which they pay such eloquent -- and empty --
lip service.
Sincerely,
Lori Martin
From the State of Pennsylvania
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