Now that the United Way of Chicago cut their donations to the Boy Scouts of America Chicago chapter by 92%, the BSA chapter has decided to sever its ties completely as a UW partner agency.
The Chicago Anti-Bashing Network said the action happened in early October: 'The BSA apparently read the tea leaves and decided to drop its membership as a partner agency of the Chicago United Way.'
On its Web site, the BSA Chicago chapter said 'We continue to be a partner agency in the Alsip, Blue Island/Calumet, Cicero, Oaklawn, Robbins, Worth-Chicago Ridge, Harwood Heights, and Southwest Cook County United Ways.' The contributions from these UWs represents only 10% of what they received from the United Way of Chicago.
The BSA Web site makes no mention of why UW has cut their funds, or why UWs and other agencies around the country are cutting off Boy Scouts' funding because of their anti-gay positions.
The UW Chicago lists six area Boy Scouts councils as 'partners' receiving funding: Chicago Area Council #11, Calumet, DesPlaines Valley, Northeast Illinois, Northwest Suburban and Three Fires.
Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, CABN met with Chicago United Way officials several times over the course of a year in an effort to get them to stop funding the BSA. Ultimately, CABN launched protests and a boycott of the Chicago United Way.
'Our position was that the United Way and government agencies which see themselves as representing the best interests of the entire community should stay a million miles away from any private organization which actively discriminates against any minority,' said CABN co-founder Andy Thayer. 'We're gratified that the Chicago United Way has finally decided to do the right thing, but their quietude and slowness in doing it hardly shapes up as a profile in moral courage. Many [UWs] in much more conservative areas of the country openly and boldly took this step long before Chicago.'
