News Release
For Immediate Release: March 22, 2012
Contact: Diane Gramley 1.814.271.9078 or 1.814.437.5355
Philadelphia Must Pay the Boy Scouts’ Legal Fees — thanks to actions of homosexual activists
(Philadelphia) — The City of Philadelphia’s attack on the Cradle of Liberty Scout Council (COLBSA) has been going on for almost a decade. In June 2010 a federal jury found that the city had violated the Boy Scouts First Amendment rights, negotiations with the city over the COLBSA headquarters started shortly afterwards. As recently as January homosexual activists and the ACLU were pressuring the City Council to reject the COLBSA/Nutter Administration agreement reached in November 2010. The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA) is pleased that the city will now be forced to pay the Scouts’ legal fees since they reneged on the agreement reached.
“The Philadelphia situation is a perfect example of why it is dangerous to the Boy Scouts for municipalities to pass so-called anti-discrimination or ‘fair practices’ ordinances which contain the words “sexual orientation.” It is this ordinance that gave the homosexual activists in Philly the ability to challenge the Scouts. This attack on the Scouts is a black eye on the city and I hope America is observing what is happening here,” commented Diane Gramley, president of the AFA of PA.
A little background: In 1982 Philadelphia amended their Fair Practices Ordinance to include ‘sexual orientation.’ In June of 2003 homosexual activists “discovered” COLBSA was not in compliance with the ordinance because they did not permit open homosexuals to be leaders or members. Since that time homosexual activists have pushed Philadelphia to kick the Scouts out of the headquarters the Scouts built and have maintained since 1929 on property the 1928 Philadelphia City Council gave them free use of in perpetuity or force them to pay $200,000 annual rent. The federal trial resulting in a favorable decision for the Boy Scouts began on June 14, 2010. Throughout this entire episode, Philadelphia homosexual activists have shown they are more interested in their own agenda than the 35,000 youth in Philadelphia and 15,000 in Montgomery and Delaware counties who are served by the Cradle of Liberty Scout Council.
“This has been a long battle for the Scouts and each step of the way homosexual activists have been the ones behind the city’s actions. These activists started the original attack back in 2003 and pushed both the Street and Nutter administrations to kick the Scouts out. The City should have ignored the loud rumblings from these activists and gone forward with what’s best for the young boys and teens in their city and allow the Scouts to purchase their headquarters for $500,000 and they, in turn, would have been forgiven the legal fees. Unfortunately, all Philadelphia taxpayers will be affected by this $877,000 bill,” noted Gramley.
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