Local activists will rally at the
Boy Scouts'
Balboa Park compound this weekend, hoping to end the group's exclusionary practices. KPBS Reporter Ana Tintocalis has the details.
Scouting For All
was established in response to the Boy Scouts' practice of barring homosexuals and atheists. Organizers like Brenda Watson believe scouting should be offered to all young people.
Watson is a transgender woman who earned the high-honor of Eagle Scout as a teenager. She says she and other Eagle Scouts around the country are returning their badges in protest.
Watson:
Our (Scouting for All) enrollment is mostly Eagle Scouts. Receiving that honor was something that I was always proud of. Even though I don’t have the badge, I will always have the badge in my heart.
Scouting For All will also speak out against an arrangement between the Scouts and the City of San Diego allowing the group to lease its Balboa Park compound at $1 dollar a year.
The
ACLU's
David Blair-Loy says the Scouts should not get special treatment in the form of a government subsidy on government land.
Blair-Loy:
Because it is an unconstitutional preferential lease to a religious organization. And the Boy Scouts are in effect a religious organization because they require a profession of a belief in God as a condition of membership or leadership.
Activists are challenging similar deals around the country.
This is will be the ninth year Scouting For All will hold its rally at Balboa Park.
Ana Tintocalis, KPBS News.
