D.C. appeals court reverses order

[NativeTexan 10]

I just read this on the CNN website:

 

D.C. appeals court reverses order favoring two gay Boy Scout leaders

Tuesday, November 12, 2002 Posted: 11:58 AM EST (1658 GMT)

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two gay Boy Scout leaders lost their bid to return to the organization in a decision by an appellate court that overturned an order that the two men be reinstated as troop leaders.

 

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals decision found that the Boy Scouts of America did not act illegally in barring the two men, Roland D. Pool and Michael Geller. The decision reverses a ruling issued last year by the D.C. Commission on Human Rights.

 

The appellate court said it based its decision on a June 2000 Supreme Court ruling. The high court declared that the Boy Scouts could bar homosexuals from serving as troop leaders. In that 5-4 decision, justices ruled that forcing the Scouts to accept gay troop leaders would violate the organization's right of "expressive association" under the Constitution's First Amendment.

 

In the ruling by the D.C. appeals court, issued Thursday, appellate Judges Michael Farrell, Stephen H. Glickman and Inez Smith Reid said they could not find any significant differences between the two cases.

 

The Commission on Human Rights had argued otherwise, saying that the troop leader in the Supreme Court case was a gay activist while Pool and Geller made no indication they would advocate homosexuality as Boy Scout leaders.

 

The appellate court disagreed, saying that the two men had been vocal about their sexual preference.

 

[acco40 95]

I'm not too familiar with the case but it seems to me that the issue was not if the men in question were gay or not, but were they advocates of (God, I hate this phrase) a "homosexual lifestyle."

 

I surmised from the last sentence, stating that the appellate court believed that they had been vocal about their sexual preference to mean that if they were not, they would not have been expelled (shades of don't ask don't tell?).

 

I tend to agree with the BSA's stance that sexual preference should not be a discussion topic with the youth.

[evmori 11]

Another win for the good guys!

 

Ed Mori

Scoutmaster

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[NJCubScouter 1389]

Glad you think it's all a game, Ed.

[evmori 11]

NJ,

Not a game. A good decision.

 

Ed Mori

Scoutmaster

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10