Green Bay — Some conservatives are missing the point about the United Way Fox Cities ending its funding of the Boy Scouts of America.
If it is acceptable for a private organization like the Boy Scouts of America to discriminate against gay men, then it is also acceptable for a private organization like United Way to cease funding it.
Yet, in the eyes of many conservatives, United Way is guilty of discrimination because it has a clear policy of not funding agencies that exclude individuals based on race, nationality, religion or sexual orientation.
When the Boy Scouts of America chose to exclude all gay individuals from leadership roles simply because of sexual orientation and for no other reason, they lost eligibility for United Way funding. It is that simple. And United Way is right.
The Boy Scouts of America has been an important organization in the United States for more than 100 years. It has promoted good citizenship, duty and honor to generations of young men.
Yet, it has abandoned one of the basic core values of citizenship: That we do not discriminate against any group of people simply because of who they are.
Prejudice against homosexuals in our society is being promoted not only privately, as in the Boy Scouts, but also as public policy. People who would never consider themselves as discriminatory seem to believe that, somehow, discrimination against homosexuals is justified, moral and appropriate.
They, unfortunately, suffer from the self-rationalization that is at the heart of all prejudice: They believe their particular bias is legitimate and, therefore, not prejudice at all.
So the same individuals who would proclaim their distaste of discrimination against African Americans are comfortable with the homophobia of the Boy Scouts because they share that particular prejudice, or feel a religious justification for their bias. And like all forms of prejudice, the perceptions about homosexuals are fiction rather than fact.
There is no scientific or statistical evidence that gay men proselytize their lifestyle, or are more likely to be child molesters than the rest of the population. I know homosexuals who are good parents, role models and community members who have been unfairly branded as potential criminals simply because they are different.
By perpetuating that stereotype, the Boy Scouts of America has done itself and the community a great disservice. Until the Boy Scouts of America chooses to treat all individuals equally, the United Way should choose not to fund it.
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