Boy Scouts' Fliers in Public Schools Challenged

The Boy Scouts of America promote bigotry by discriminating against atheists and gays. This is their legal right - private groups can be bigoted against anyone they want and promote discrimination against them. But where should we draw the line between the government allowing such bigotry to exist and acting to promote or help those groups perpetuate their bigotry? Does the former ever require the latter?

This is a problem facing many school districts across the country - they can't legally support the bigotry and discrimination of the Boy Scouts, but they also have a long tradition of helping the Scouts recruit new children for membership. Fortunately, there are people out there willing to challenge this tradition. One is David Hilton who is asking that his local Main school district stop sending home flyers for the Boy Scouts, as the Press Herald reports:

Hilton said the practice gives the impression that the school department endorses a discriminatory organization, and he is lobbying the School Committee to stop it. School Committee Chairman Jonathan Radtke said the fliers pose a dilemma. If school officials ban Boy Scout notices, he said, they will be legally required to ban notices from all other groups.

That could be a serious issue, but I don't think that it is ultimately very convincing. It may be legal for the Boy Scouts to discriminate against gays and atheists, but the government is not therefore obligated to help them do it even more by recruiting new kids to be taught that gays and atheists are less moral than them. On the contrary, government organizations have an obligation to state that such bigotry and discrimination, while legal, is still immoral and contrary to the basic principles upon which the nation was founded. WMTV quotes:

"If there were a neo-Nazi group who wanted to submit a flyer and have that distributed... I just don't think the people of Portland and the school committee and the Portland Public Schools would accept that. A disclaimer would just not be enough," Hilton says.

I think that Hilton is correct here. Schools would never agree to distribute the flyers of a group that discriminated against or promoted bigotry against: Jews, Catholics, Muslims, Native Americans, Arabs, etc. Administrators would find this a very easy decision to make. But when it comes to bigotry and discrimination against gays and atheists, suddenly the decision becomes a bit problem and they worry about the effects on other groups.

C'mon, people, let's try a little honesty here: you don't actually care about the fact that you are helping further the agenda of a group that promotes bigotry against gays and atheists. You are being forced to confront that and, so far, it's making you feel uncomfortable. Well, good. You should feel uncomfortable with aiding the spread of bigotry. The question is, what are you going to do about it now - are you going to do the right thing and make a stand against bigotry, or are you going to find some way to rationalize why it's OK in this case and continue with the status quo?

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