News Release
For Immediate Release: December 13, 2012
Contact: Diane Gramley 1.814.271.9078 or 1.814.437.5355
Philadelphia and Homosexual Activists Renew Attack on Cradle of Liberty Scout Council
(Philadelphia) — The City of Philadelphia has again given in to pressure from homosexual activists and removed their offer to the Cradle of Liberty Scout Council (COLBSA) which would have allowed the Scouts to buy their headquarters for $500,000 and, in return, COLBSA would drop its efforts to retrieve $960,000 in legal fees from the city. The city instead has taken the “advice” of homosexual activists and is appealing the 2010 court decision to the Third Circuit. The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), a statewide children’s advocacy group, condemns the city’s attack on the Scouts which, in essence, is an attack on the young men of that city.
“In June 2010 a jury decided the city’s attempt to evict the Scouts because of their ban on homosexual leaders and members was unconstitutional. Later that year the two sides seemed to be on the verge of finally settling with the City’s offer to sell the building to the Scouts, but homosexual activists have pressured the city from day one to remove the offer. Now, they have not only succeeded in having the offer removed, but in getting the city to appeal the 2010 decision to the Third Circuit. The goal of homosexual activists is to remake the Scouts or destroy them in the attempt,” Diane Gramley, president of the AFA of PA noted.
Some examples: In the early 80’s the City of Philadelphia added ‘sexual orientation’ to their Fair Practices Ordinance, the all out attacks against COLBSA began about 20 years later and have not lessened. In 2003 the city added “gender identity” to the same ordinance. Will the Scouts now be expected to allow transgender individuals in their ranks? In 2003, under pressure from homosexual activists, Southeastern PA United Way pulled $400,000 in funding from COLBSA and Pew Charitable Trust pulled a $100,000 grant.
A coalition of homosexual groups, including Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc.; Mazzoni Center; Equality Forum; Equality Pennsylvania; Human Rights Campaign; and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays Philadelphia, have filed a friend of the court brief in the appeal. The ACLU of Pennsylvania and other civil rights and religious groups have also filed briefs in support of evicting the Scouts from the headquarters they built and have maintained without cost to the city since 1929.
Philadelphia’s murder rate is up 23 percent over 2011. Young men in Philadelphia only expect to live to their early 20’s because of violence, yet homosexual activists attack Scout programs which could help the situation. They’ve said the city should cancel the contract they have with the Scouts Learning for Life program because of a 2011 ballot initiative which amended Philadelphia’s Home Rule Charter forbidding city contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
“We are very disappointed that the City Council of Philadelphia did not approve the agreement Mayor Nutter had reached with the Scouts, instead they chose to listen to the small, but loud, minority of Philadelphia citizens who want to force the Scouts out. The balls in the court of the Third Circuit and the future of the Cradle of Liberty Scout Council and the lives of the tens of thousands of young men in Philadelphia, Montgomery and Delaware Counties reached by COLBSA rest in their hands,” stated Gramley.
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