Boy Scouts fight back

The northwest corner of Balboa Park in downtown San Diego is an oasis of pine trees, a pool, a tiny amphitheater, an archery range, a rifle range, an activity center for knot-tying plus several campsites.

Ordinarily, the 15.6 acres that has been leased to the Boy Scouts of America since 1957 is a restful spot and an easy commute for residents who want a quick escape to parkland within city limits. The Boy Scouts have invested at least $5 million in the park, which is open to the public.

All this is now up for grabs because of a lawsuit seeking to remove the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) from their land. It is one of many battles nationwide affecting an organization serving 1 million boys ages 11 to 17 that in 2000 won a Supreme Court decision in Boy Scouts of America vs. Dale, allowing the BSA to ban homosexuals from scoutmaster positions.

In the past four years, numerous lawsuits have been filed against the Boy Scouts, at least 60 United Way chapters have withdrawn funding, and government officials from San Diego to Hartford, Conn., are saying the Scouts’ exclusion of homosexuals should not go unchallenged.

The newest case, Boy Scouts vs. Wyden, is before the Supreme Court, which is expected to announce tomorrow whether it will take the case.

The Balboa Park case began four years ago when the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit on behalf of two couples: a pair of lesbians and an agnostic couple with Scout-age sons.

Although neither couple had ever visited the property, both claimed the Scouts’ policies compelling boys to believe in God and shunning homosexuals made them feel excluded.

The suit also said the city was violating the doctrine of separation of church and state with its 50-year, $1-a-year agreement with the Boy Scouts allowing it to lease the 15 acres from Balboa Park’s total spread of 1,200 acres. When the lease was renewed in 2002, the Boy Scouts agreed to spend another $1.7 million during the next seven years to upgrade the park plus pay the city a $2,500 administrative fee.

Also at risk is less than an acre five miles away on Fiesta Island in San Diego’s Mission Bay park, where the Scouts built a $2 million aquatic center. But in July 2003, U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones ruled the BSA is a religious organization and, thus, the city was violating the separation of church and state by leasing them the land.

The Scouts protested that their aim was not to advance religion but to support camping and watersports for boys. Their Web site says their goal is to “build in young people lifetime values and develop in them ethical character,” as well as “offer young people responsible fun and adventure.”

In January, the San Diego City Council, a co-defendant with the Boy Scouts of America and the BSA’s Desert Pacific Council, bailed out, settling with the ACLU for $950,000.

The Boy Scouts since have filed suit against the city of San Diego for breaking the lease, claiming the city’s refusal to lease to the Scouts on the same terms available to other groups violates the Scouts’ First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of association, as well as their 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law.

On Feb. 24, the Scouts amended the suit, claiming that city employees are now harassing and mistreating the Scouts by photographing their vehicles and levying thousands of dollars of parking tickets against the Scouts.

“The San Diego case represents an ominous metamorphosis in the gay rights movement,” wrote Peter Ferrara, executive director of the American Civil Rights Union, in the Weekly Standard. “Gay rights used to represent the freedom for adults to do what they want to with their sex lives behind closed doors…. But what the ACLU seeks now is something quite different. It is pursuing the vilification and marginalization of those who hold to traditional morality.”

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