Some activists want the Philadelphia Police Department to stop sponsoring a youth program with ties to the Boy Scouts of America.
Instead, the activists want the police to restructure the program so that it has no connection to the Scouts — an organization the city is trying to evict from a municipal building.
Margaret A. Downey, president of the Freethought Society, based in Pocopson, said city officials should follow Los Angeles’ example and sever all ties with Learning for Life.
“The Scouts are playing too much of a shell game,” Downey told PGN. “They’re shuffling around paperwork, staff, office duties, property and funds to cover up discrimination. But it’s not possible [to do that] given the pervasive nature of the Scouts’ discrimination. The city shouldn’t be a party to such an arrangement.”
Instead, Downey said, the city should revamp its Exploring program so that it’s clearly open to all city youth and doesn’t have even a remote connection to the Scouts.
City officials should use any proceeds gained from the possession of the 22nd Street building to help fund the revamped program, she suggested.
The police department sponsors Exploring Post No. 991, a career-development program that helps city youth learn police procedures through “hands-on” participation.
The participants, ages are trained in a variety of areas, including hostage negotiations, crime-scene searches, arrest/search techniques, crowd control and gun safety, according to the Philadelphia Police Department’s website.
The Boy Scouts Cradle of Liberty Council helps administer the Exploring program and other youth programs out of a city-owned building at 231-251 N. 22nd St.
But the Scouts won’t permit openly gay participants in their traditional programs, nor will they pay fair-market rent, and the city is trying to evict them from the building.
A federal jury trial begins June 14.
Scouts’ point of view
The Scouts contend they’re being discriminated against simply for exercising their First Amendment right to exclude gays in their traditional programs — which, they maintain, comprise only a small fraction of the activities inside the municipal building.
The Scouts say the “lion’s share” of programming inside the building relates to Learning for Life, a subsidiary of the Scouts that they say is open to all city youths, regardless of sexual orientation or religious belief.
According to court papers filed by the Scouts, Learning for Life is a totally separate corporation with its own financial records and isn’t influenced by the Scouts’ antigay policies.
As a “local agent,” the Cradle of Liberty Council administers the region’s Learning for Life programs. But the council’s Learning for Life workers don’t take the Scout oath, and the program has its own antibias policy covering gays.
Thus, all Learning for Life workers and participants allegedly are protected from antigay bias, the Scouts contend.
Typical supports provided by Learning for Life to an Exploring post include liability-insurance coverage, training materials and assistance, operational guidelines, youth scholarships and awards, educational seminars, equipment, networking accessibility and the use of the “Exploring” trademark.
In court papers, city attorneys have declined to either confirm or deny the Scouts’ assertion that Learning for Life is nondiscriminatory.
But some activists are concerned that the police department’s continued affiliation with Learning for Life appears to lend credence to the Scouts’ assertion.
Policies in other cities
Several major cities have rejected the Scouts’ claim that Learning for Life is non-discriminatory, including Chicago, San Diego and San Francisco.
Los Angeles is the most recent example. Its police and fire departments severed ties with the Exploring program last year and replaced it with a city-administered program that’s open to all youth.
Los Angeles officials noted that the Scouts served as a subcontractor for Learning for Life, which was in violation of the city’s contractual standards forbidding antigay discrimination by subcontractors.
Los Angeles officials said the entire workforce of a city contractor/subcontractor must be covered by a comprehensive antibias policy; there can be no “carve-out” for members of the workforce not associated with a city job.
Learning for Life’s “position on participation,” as posted on its website, declares that “color, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic background, disability, economic status or citizenship are not criteria for participation [in Learning for Life programs].”
Los Angeles officials noted the statement doesn’t match Los Angeles’ nondiscriminatory policy because it fails to include categories such as age, marital and domestic-partner status and medical condition.
Los Angeles officials also maintained the Scouts appear to have no meaningful antibias policy.
City reaction
Philadelphia’s antibias policy forbids discrimination by city contractors/subcontractors on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation or disability.
Maura Kennedy, a spokesperson for Mayor Nutter, had no comment on whether Nutter would support the restructuring of the Exploring post so that it has no ties to the Scouts.
Sgt. Ray Evers, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department, had no comment about the possibility of restructuring the Exploring post, in light of the city’s eviction effort.
Tim Cwiek can be reached at (215) 625-8501 ext. 208.