Nov 17 2012

UPS Stops Funding Boy Scouts

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Some good news for equality, as UPS has announced that it will no longer fund the Boy Scouts of America because of that organization’s policy of discriminating against gays (and atheists too). This is the second company to do this, in response to a petition drive:

The philanthropic arm of shipping giant UPS said it will no longer give money to the Boy Scouts of America as long as the group discriminates against gays, the second major corporation to recently strip funding from the scouts.

The UPS Foundation made the change Thursday after an online petition protesting its annual grants to the Boy Scouts attracted more than 80,000 signatures. UPS, based in Atlanta, follows computer chip maker Intel in withdrawing corporate support for the Boy Scouts…

UPS spokeswoman Kristen Petrella said groups applying for the foundation grants will have to adhere to the same standards UPS does by not discriminating against anyone based on race, religion, disability or sexual orientation.

“We promote an environment of diversity and inclusion,” Petrella said Monday. “UPS is a company that does the right things for the right reasons.”

This fight is being led by Scouts for Equality, led by former a couple hundred former Eagle Scouts who have renounced that achievement in protest of the group’s discriminatory policies.

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15 comments

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1

StevoR

November 17, 2012 at 9:33 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Good news day today is it?
2

dingojack

November 17, 2012 at 9:45 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Good. Hope there are many that follow the example of Intel and UPS.*
Dingo
—–
* So do the wingnuts boycott UPS because of their policies despite having their HQ in Georgia, or not?
Oh the moral dilemma!!
3

Rodney Nelson

November 17, 2012 at 10:05 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

The Boy Scouts will not stop discrimination against gays and atheists as long as it remains the male youth group of the Mormon Church.
4

tbp1

November 17, 2012 at 12:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

I hate to see this, as I got a lot of benefit from my years in Scouts, but they really need to grow up and join the 21st Century. Plus, they need to stop making a lie of their own recruiting slogan, “Scouting is for all boys.”

Until they do, I support actions like this, and also think they should lose their tax-exempt status.
5

kemist, Dark Lord of the Sith

November 17, 2012 at 12:23 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

* So do the wingnuts boycott UPS because of their policies despite having their HQ in Georgia, or not?

One thing that would be a huge favor to the entire world would be for them to start boycotting Intel.

That would effectively remove them from the internet.

Most of those servers have Intel CPUs. Even if your particular server doesn’t use an Intel CPU, the DNS server you query can have one. And if that one doesn’t, its authoritative server or the root server might.

And Intel doesn’t only make CPUs.

It’s also one of the top makers of NAND flash. That’s used in USB drives, SD cards, microcontrollers that are used in many, many things…

Muhahahahahahah…
6

dan4

November 17, 2012 at 12:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

@3″…as it remains the male youth group of the Mormon Church.”

What?
7

Sastra

November 17, 2012 at 1:10 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

I wonder if any company or organization has or will stop funding the Boy Scouts because of its policy of discriminating against gays and atheists.

I ask this because the only protests I have seen coming from the mainstream is concern over the Boy Scout’s discrimination against gays. Only explicitly atheist and humanist organizations ever seem to complain about both. Atheism appears too ‘hot’ for companies to touch.

Am I mistaken? I might be. I could have missed something.
8

khms

November 17, 2012 at 1:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

@6 dan4:

@3″…as it remains the male youth group of the Mormon Church.”

What?

https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=boy+scouts+mormon
9

Erp

November 17, 2012 at 1:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

@4 danf

The Mormon church in the US uses Scouting to train its boys and has since practically the founding of the BSA. Each ward charters a pack (for cubs) and a troop (for scouts) and Mormon boys are expected to join and proceed up the ranks. The LDS is the largest single sponsor of troops and packs in the US (about 38,000 out of 100,000+ total units) with the United Methodists running a distant second (11,000 units). This is important because voice in the BSA is determined by units chartered not actual registered members (the LDS may have more units but average unit size is smaller so they have about 421,000 youth against 371,000 in United Methodist units). I suspect their reps to the BSA also tend to speak with one voice.

http://www.scouting.org/About/FactSheets/operating_orgs.aspx

(Note the US Girl Scouts have a very different system.)
10

Erp

November 17, 2012 at 2:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

@7 Sastra

The Unitarian Universalist Association has certainly raised the issue of atheists along with gays back in the 90s. The result was not pretty.
11

Dr X

November 17, 2012 at 4:17 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Erp,

Interesting link. I notice that 1247 fire departments sponsor Boy Scout Organizations. Taxpayer funded, public agencies are permitted to sponsor groups that discriminate on the basis of religious belief and sexual orientation?
12

raven

November 17, 2012 at 4:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Boy Scouts because of its policy of discriminating against gays and atheists.

Yeah, it seems like no one cares too much about them discriminating against atheists. Which is odd, because the No Religions make up 22% of the population and are growing rapidly as xianity shakes itself apart. A lot more than the gay percentage.

They also discriminate against pagans.

Two brothers in a troop in Louisiana were told they were no longer welcome after one boy admitted that they were Wiccan. Although they were later reinstated to the troop (a month later), the boys decided not to stay.

A Wiccan group tried to start a Boy Scout troop. The Boy Scouts told them no.

The Wiccan’s have their own copy of the Boy Scouts now and will admit atheists.
13

raven

November 17, 2012 at 4:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Wikipedia Boy Scouts:

change
(since 1999) -27.4% -11.6% +14.1% -20.2%

The Boy Scouts of America’s bigotry has definitely hurt them.

Their membership is going down steadily and has dropped 20% in the last 12 years while our population is growing.

I’m sure they could care less. It’s always more important to hate than worry about your organization or membership.

There are more and more scoutlike organizations that don’t discriminate so ultimately it won’t matter that much.

The one advantage the BSA has is there extensive network of summer camps in scenic mountain areas. I tried to find a number but couldn’t, it seems to be in the hundreds or thousands. Which may well be a huge problem for them down the road. AFAICT, a lot of these are leased from the US and local governments because they seem to be on forest service or BLM land. The US government is on shaky ground leasing our lands to organizations that discriminate. At least one of these leases is being challenged.
14

raven

November 17, 2012 at 4:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

ACLU of San Diego Secures Landmark Settlement in Boy Scout …
www. aclu.org › … › LGBT Basic Rights and Liberties

8 Jan 2004 – SAN DIEGO — The American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties … lawsuit challenging the city’s subsidy of the Desert Pacific Boy Scout Council through preferential leases for public land in Balboa Park …

BSA Discrimination.org:Home -> Breaking News -> San Diego Council

www. bsa-discrimination. org/html/sandiego.html
SanDiego. Once again, BSA is being taught a lesson by our judicial system. … The Boy Scouts lease of a Fiesta Island aquatics center on city-owned land is just … lawsuit challenging the City’s subsidy of the Desert Pacific Boy Scout Council …

First google capture:

“San Diego has finally taken itself out of the business of endorsing the exclusion of many of its residents from their own city parks,” said Jordan Budd, Legal Director of the local ACLU. “While, it is unfortunate that it has taken an adverse court ruling to get the city on the right side of this issue, the end result is a victory for every San Diegan who cares about tolerance and equality.”

In July 2003, Federal District Court Judge Napoleon Jones ruled that the Balboa Park lease violates First Amendment guarantees of separation of church and state.

As part of the settlement, the city has agreed to request that Judge Jones enter a final judgment based on that ruling and then to give notice to the Scouts that the Balboa Park lease has terminated and that their interest in the property has expired. The city has also agreed to end its support of the Scouts in the lawsuit and not to oppose the ACLU as it pursues resolution of the remaining issues in the lawsuit, particularly those involving the Fiesta Island lease, which Jones put over for trial in his July ruling.

This is interesting.

Apparently the governments can’t lease land to organizations that discriminate against atheists. Like the Boy Scouts.

AFAICT, their summer camps are largely leased in many areas because the government owns so much wilderness type land.
15

cry4turtles

November 18, 2012 at 7:34 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

I wonder what kind of person could actually stand in front of young boys and tell them they’re kicked out of the scouts. Cold MFer.