L.A. Times shuts out Scouts

After years of supporting the Boy Scouts' "Campership Program" – which enables needy Scouts to attend summer camp by underwriting part of the costs – The Los Angeles Times is for the first time turning down the Scouts' application for The Los Angeles Times' annual Family Fund.

In a letter to the San Gabriel Valley Council of the Boy Scouts, the Family Fund's program director, Raul Bustillos, explained the denial: "The Times limits its charitable support to organizations whose policies and practices are consistent with ours regarding non-discrimination."

The almost century-old Boy Scouts of America, which currently includes some 5 million youths and 1.2 million adults, has had a consistent policy from day one of not allowing open homosexuals to become scout leaders.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last summer that, as a private organization, the Boy Scouts had a constitutional right to include or exclude members of their own choosing and could set membership standards as the group saw fit.

Homosexual groups and advocates took offense to the high court ruling and have been waging a public relations and funding battle against the Boy Scouts of America ever since.

That activism has led to a number of United Way chapters, corporations, city councils and other private charities ending their financial support for the Scouts – the latest being the Los Angeles Times.

According to a press release from the Scouts Alumni Association, "the charitable donations in question are private contributions solicited in The Los Angeles Times for youth from low-income families who cannot afford summer camp programs, some of which are run by the Scouts. The funds do not originate with the Times, nor do they go directly to the Boy Scouts of America."

Although The Los Angeles Times or any private company is entitled to promote its own ideology, adds the scouting alumni group, "advertisements soliciting contributions for low-income youth should disclose that one of the largest providers of camping programs is excluded."

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