
|
WINDY CITY TIMES
|
|
|
Obama backs gays in Boy Scouts
2013-02-03
|
|
This article shared 4452 times since Sun Feb 3, 2013
|
|
President Barack Obama said he is in favor of the inclusion of open gays in the Boy Scouts of America. He was asked the question by CBS journalist Scott Pelley on Super Bowl Sunday, giving the answer a high-profile audience of tens of millions.
Obama said "nobody should be barred" from the Boy Scouts: "Gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does."
Meanwhile, two days before an expected vote, the Human Rights Campaign will run a full-page ad in the Dallas Morning News on Monday, Feb. 4, calling on the leadership at Boy Scouts of America to end its discriminatory policy prohibiting gay people from Scouting and adopt a national non-discrimination standard.
Last week, BSA representatives indicated the organization would consider changing the policy to instead allow local sponsoring organizations to make their own decisions and potentially discriminate at the local level.
"While the proposed change is a step in the right direction, we can't pretend that passing the buck to the local level will eliminate anti-gay discrimination because it won't," said HRC communications vice president Fred Sainz. "Generations of gay Americans have been told they're not good enough to join the Scouts, simply because of who they are. BSA has an opportunity to change that this week by adopting a non-discrimination policy. Scouting, which has played an important role in American society, will be strengthened by that action."
The ad, which will appear in the print edition of the newspaper Monday morning, encourages readers to call on the BSA board to enact a nationwide anti-discrimination policy. Currently the organization's official policy is to "not grant membership to individuals who are open or avowed homosexuals" as Scouts or adult Scout Leaders.
On Friday, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation announced more stringent criterion for its Corporate Equality Index. To receive a perfect score in the future, companies would have to prohibit philanthropic giving to non-religious organizations that have a written policy of anti-gay discrimination, or permit its chapters, affiliates, or troops to do so.
|
 |
|
 |
This article shared 4452 times since Sun Feb 3, 2013
|
ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE |
---|
| 
|  | Quigley commends progress in FDA LGBTQI+ blood donation draft guidance 2023-01-27 --From a press release - Washington, DC — Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05), Vice-Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, released the following statement commending long-awaited updates to the FDA's blood donation guidance for LGBTQI+ ...
| 
|  | Equality Illinois responds to violence, murder of Black and Brown trans people on the south side 2023-01-25 --From a press release - Statement by Myles Brady Davis, Director of Communications at Equality Illinois, the state's civil rights organization for LGBTQ+ people, regarding the violences and murders of Black and Brown trans people on the south side of Chicago: ...
| 
|  | NATIONAL Calif. bills, DeSantis, HIV vaccine, Meta, college items 2023-01-22 Buried within the bills California legislators filed after Gov. Gavin Newsom released his budget proposal for the 2023-2024 fiscal year is a line seeking to retrieve $13 million back from the state's Transgender Wellness and Equity ...
| 
|  | WORLD Dutch vote, landmark ruling, French teen, UK items 2023-01-22 Dutch senators voted 56-15 in favor of including an explicit ban on discrimination on the grounds of disability or sexual orientation in the constitution, DutchNews.nl reported. This development clears the way for the constitution to be ...
| 
|  | Early voting in downtown Chicago to start Thursday, January 26 2023-01-17 --From a press release - CHICAGO, IL — Early voting in Downtown Chicago for the February 28, 2023 Municipal Election will start at two vote centers — the Voter Supersite at 191 N. Clark and Board Offices at 69 W. Washington, ...
| 
|  | NATIONAL Asylum-seekers, equality updates, cannabis, HIV and COVID 2023-01-15 Advocacy groups that specifically work with LGBTQI+ asylum-seekers and migrants criticized the Biden administration's expansion of the use of "expedited removal" of Cubans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and Venezuelans who enter the ...
| 
|  | Illinois General Assembly passes legislation to protect reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare, leaders respond 2023-01-11 --From a news release - From Equality Illinois Statement from Equality Illinois Deputy Director Mony Ruiz-Velasco on passage by the Illinois General Assembly of essential legislation to protect patients, providers, and families seeking and providing ...
| 
|  | NATIONAL Democrats and trans issues, political wins, gay bars, HIV drug 2023-01-08 Republicans and Democrats differ widely in their views on gender identity and transgender issuesbut there are notable differences among Democrats, too, especially by race and ethnicity, according to Pew Research. Overall, 60% of U.S. adults say ...
| 
|  | 26th Ward alderman withdraws from race; LGBTQ+ candidate still in it 2023-01-07 The Chicago Board of Elections confirmed that 26th Ward Ald. Roberto Maldonado has withdrawn from the race, The Chicago Tribune reported. After 13 years, there will be another person representing the ward—which includes Humboldt Park and ...
| 
|  | Howard Brown strike reaches third day 2023-01-05 Amid layoffs of 60 unionized and four non-union staffers at multiple Howard Brown Health (Howard Brown), Broadway Youth Center and Brown Elephant locations across Chicago, over 400 HBH Workers United non-nurse members represented by the Illinois ...
| 
|  | Brave Space Alliance to Illinois General Assembly: Don't back down on trans protections 2023-01-04 -- From a press release - CHICAGO, IL - January 4, 2023 - Brave Space Alliance (BSA), the South Side LGBTQ+ Center, has been made aware of active discussions to exclude protections for trans people and gender-affirming care from pending legislation that ...
| 
|  | WORLD Conversion therapy, Indian school, trans boxers, anti-LGBTQ+ move 2022-12-31 South Florida Gay News noted that efforts to ban so-called conversion therapy gained a lot of traction around the world in 2022. For example, Canada and France introduced LGBTQ+-inclusive bills to ban conversion therapy for minors ...
| 
|  | NATIONAL Indiana's 'Don't Say Gay,' drag show, Citi, new LGBTQ+ terms 2022-12-31 GOP lawmakers in Indiana have said that a proposal to restrict discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools—modeled after Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill—will be drafted in the new year, according to INTO. The ...
| 
|  | LGBTQ+ police officer remembered as 'wonder woman' 2022-12-30 On Dec. 29, the friends and loved ones of LGBTQ+ Bradley Police Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic gathered at the Comfort Inn in Bourbonnais to mark the one-year anniversary of her passing, ABC 7 Chicago reported. The hotel ...
| 
|  | Gay GOP congressman admits to lying about background 2022-12-28 Long Island Rep.-elect George Santos—a newly elected gay GOP U.S. congressman who defeated an openly gay Democrat in November—told The New York Post that he lied on the campaign trail about his education and work experience, the publication ...
| |
|
|
|
|