Bye-Bye, Boy Scouts

The Philadelphia branch of the Boy Scouts of America has been located in this beaux-arts building in Center City for nearly 80 years. The Boy Scouts built the historic structure in 1928 and then deeded it to the city, which in exchange agreed to let the scouts use it in perpetuity rent-free. That arrangement is now coming unglued over the Boy Scouts of America's prohibition against homosexual scoutmasters.

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The scouts' right to exclude gays on grounds of "expressive association" was affirmed seven years ago by the Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale. Congress buttressed the decision two years ago with passage of the "Support Our Scouts Act," which withholds federal housing dollars from local governments that refuse the Boy Scouts access to schools or city buildings because of the organization's anti-gay policy. But the scouts' prohibition couldn't be squared with Philadelphia's Fair Practices law, passed in 1982, so last year the city's solicitor, Romulo L. Diaz Jr., issued a "notice of ejectment" advising the scouts that they could no longer operate under a municipal subsidy. The scouts can still remain if they pay rent at the market rate, Diaz said. (That turns out to be $200,000 per year.) This past May, Philadelphia's city council affirmed Diaz's decision with a resolution passed 16-1 (see below and on the following page). The Boy Scouts must pay up, move out, or stop discriminating against homosexuals.

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