The Boy Scouts of America Cradle of Liberty Council will accept gay adults, if given the option to do so by the national BSA organization.
Cradle executive Daniel A. Templar confirmed the potential policy shift to PGN this week.
Templar’s statement comes on the heels of BSA president Robert Gates’ recent comments indicating that local BSA councils may soon have the option of accepting gay adults.
Currently, gay youth may participate in Scouting, but not gay adults.
“[Cradle] has always opposed prejudice, intolerance and unlawful discrimination,” Templar told PGN. “For that reason, we’re very appreciative of the efforts of Dr. Gates and the national council to revisit the national membership standards for adults.”
He added: “If a local option is offered to accept gay adults serving within the group, yes, we will [accept gay adults]. To my knowledge, [Cradle] has never denied membership to anyone based on sexual orientation.”
Cradle is headquartered in Treddyfrin Township and serves youth in Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties.
Cradle was formerly headquartered in a city-owned building on the Ben Franklin Parkway. But it vacated the building in 2013, after refusing to sign a lease with comprehensive antibias language.
The building has been vacant for almost two years, and Templar didn’t know whether Cradle would try to reoccupy to it in light of the more-inclusive potential.
“We have not discussed that yet,” Templar said. “I don’t suspect that we will in the near future. So I don’t have an answer for you on that question, unfortunately.”
Twelve years ago, Cradle leaders ejected Greg Lattera from Scouting after he came out as a gay Life Scout.
It was Lattera’s ejection that sparked a concerted effort by the local LGBT community to remove Cradle from the Parkway building.
Lattera, 30, currently works as a firefighter in a suburb of Pittsburgh. He doesn’t hold any hostile feelings against Cradle, he said.
“I’ve never been bitter,” Lattera told PGN. “I’ve always been hurt that they took [Scouting] away from me. It was a big part of my life. But I’ll never be bitter. I’m not going to be a cog in their machine, and let them wear me down.”
Lattera said he didn’t push for Cradle’s eviction, but he understands why the club had to leave the Parkway building.
Perhaps more than any other individual, LGBT advocate Arthur M. Kaplan worked tirelessly to ensure Cradle’s departure from the Parkway building because it wouldn’t comply with local antibias rules.
Kaplan was sharply rebuked by a federal judge, who’s a former Scouting official.
Yet, like Lattera, Kaplan isn’t bitter about his experience. If Cradle will abide by local antibias rules, he wouldn’t oppose its return to the building.
“They could have a fair shot to get back into that building,” Kaplan said. “They could have an equal place in line, and compete [for re-entry] along with organizations with longstanding nondiscrimination policies, like the Girl Scouts and Big Brothers Big Sisters.”
But before returning to the building, Kaplan said, “[Cradle] would have to sign an unequivocal, comprehensive nondiscrimination policy, just like other groups do that lease Fairmount Park property.”
Margaret A. Downey, president of the Freethought Society, said Cradle also should accept atheists and agnostics.
“Discrimination is wrong, whether it’s against gays or nontheists,” Downey said. “Over the last 25 years, the nontheist community has advocated for the gay community to be accepted into the Boy Scouts of America’s organization. It is time for the gay community to advocate for inclusion of the nontheist community.”
Gates’ comments also give hope to Geoffrey C. McGrath, who was ejected as a scoutmaster for a BSA troop in Seattle last year after he came out. Then the BSA severed ties with a Methodist church that sponsored McGrath’s troop, after the church expressed support for him.
In response, McGrath organized an alternate scouting program for youth, which he currently leads.
Last week, McGrath, 50, said he’d like to have the option of rejoining BSA, as an openly gay scoutmaster.
He also expressed hope that the local BSA council in Seattle will “extend the hand of reconciliation” and restore ties with the sponsoring church.
“Rejoining the BSA would be a decision for the families, the sponsoring organization and the kids themselves,” he told PGN. “We would welcome having an opportunity to consider that option.”
Much work needs to be done to ensure the safety of gay youth in Scouting, McGrath added.
“For instance, volunteers need to know how best to support youth who may come out — youth who may have dangerous situations at home,” he noted. “A volunteer’s first inclination might be to tell the child’s parent. But that can put youth at risk of abuse, homelessness or worse.”