This week's Hey, You!–which surely you read before landing on this drivel–brings up an interesting take on buying goodies from the Girl Scouts as opposed to the Boy Scouts.
The hits keep coming: there's now a campaign to end tax-exempt status in California for youth groups that discriminated based on sexual orientation, including the Boy Scouts of America.
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So far, more than 5,000 Californians have signed a petition posted on nonprofit MoveOn.org's online petition site SignOn.org. Former Boy Scouts around the country have been posting their own petitions; California's comes courtesy of Eddie Kurtz, who is straight and is urging the state Legislature to pass Senate Bill 323, which is sponsored by Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Los Angeles). It would end tax breaks for youth groups that discriminate against members based on their sexual orientation.
“I grew up in the Boy Scout tradition,” Kurtz relates in a statement from MoveOn.org. “I started out as a Cub Scout, transitioned through Webelos, and ended my Boy Scout journey as a Life Scout, one rank below Eagle. My closest friends were other scouts. Scouting stands for the finest qualities of humanity: self-reliance, creativity, and an appreciation of nature. Most of all, we were taught how to act as responsible, respectful citizens.”
Kurtz, who also serves as director of campaigns for the pro-marriage equality Courage Campaign, adds, “This is why the Boy Scouts' continued policy of excluding members based on their sexual orientation is so upsetting to me. It flies in the face of the very values that the scouting tradition professes to teach. As a straight ally, I can't sit idle while the current leaders of the Boy Scouts disgrace this once-proud American institution with their personal bigotry.”
Guess we found someone else who won't be buying popcorn when a Boy Scout comes to the door.
Surely you read the Hey, You! to get that reference before landing on this drivel.
[Hey, You!] Cookie Hater: When it comes to snacking, bigots have no taste
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.