The ACLU is after the Boy Scouts here in Orange County, CA.
ocregister.com
ACLU opposes Scouts' use of county land
SOCIAL ISSUES: Supervisors are warned not to give lease to
group that bans gay members.
September 26, 2000
By CHRIS REED
The Orange County Register
The American Civil Liberties Union is threatening to sue the county if the Board of
Supervisors decides tonight to extend the Boy Scouts of America's free lease for the
Sea Base facility in Newport Bay.
Scouts have operated and maintained a marine-education and recreation camp on the
county tidelands site since the late 1930s. More than 27,000 youths used the camp
in 1999.
Now Scout leaders are planning a $3.5 million upgrade. Before they begin work,
they want a 30-year extension of their current lease, which expires in 2009.
But ACLU attorney Martha Matthews said Monday that the county could not
legally provide a taxpayer-funded benefit to a private organization that asserted its
right to ban gay members on religious grounds.
State and federal law preclude the county from helping a group that "insists on
discriminating," Matthews said.
Local Scout leaders could not be reached for comment late Monday.
But Supervisor Tom Wilson, whose district includes the camp, said the ACLU was
unlikely to sway the board.
Citing the planned improvements, Wilson said the Scouts weren't exploiting the
county.
And he said the Sea Base was open to all groups and was frequently used by
non-Scouts.
The ACLU has long targeted Scouts' use of public property.
But since a Supreme Court ruling in June upholding the organization's right to ban
gay Scoutmasters, the ACLU and gay-rights activists have used the decision to
argue that Scouts want to be treated like a private group when it comes to internal
practices and like a public group when it comes to "government freebies."
"The Boy Scouts can't have it both ways," said Tricia Aynes of the Gay and
Lesbian Center of Orange County.
Last month, citing the high court's ruling, the ACLU sued San Diego over Scouts'
use of city property in Balboa Park.
READER POLL: Should the county extend the Boy Scouts' lease in light of the Boy
Scouts' ban on gay members? Local News 3 |
