GLBT community members and leaders will debate the current state of affairs for the movement during a Human Rights Summit scheduled for Aspen Gay & Lesbian Ski Week, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund reports.
The event, set for Jan. 24, is expected to draw up to 200 people. Other Victory Fund programs include the annual Culinary Institute and a free "après ski" reception.
The Human Rights Summit is free and open to the public. Aspen Gay & Lesbian Ski Week, set for Jan. 20 - 27, is a series of fund-raising events produced by the Aspen Gay & Lesbian Community Fund, a non-profit organization that donates its net proceeds to local, regional and national charitable organizations.
Chicago-area Reform Jews appear behind Boy Scout ban
Reform Jewish leaders have recommended that parents withdraw their children from membership in the Boy Scouts of America and that synagogues end their sponsorship of Scout troops because of the organization's ban on gays.
The denomination said the Scouts' insistence on excluding gay leaders and members is "incompatible with our consistent belief that every individual — regardless of his or her sexual orientation — is created in the image of God and is deserving of equal treatment."
While the Reform group's recommendations are not binding on individual synagogues, several in the Chicago area have indicated they plan to heed the advice.
"We're urging our people to separate from the Scouts because of values and ethics that conflict with ours, specifically that every human being is created in the image of God and is equal," said Rabbi Karen Kedar, director of the Reform movement's Great Lakes Council, to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Scouts have maintained that homosexuality is inconsistent with their morals and beliefs.
According to the New York Times, about 65 percent of Scout troops are sponsored by religious organizations, though very few by Jewish groups. There are 123,935 Boy Scout troops and Cub Scout packs nationwide, with 3.4 million young people involved. Jewish organizations sponsor 277 of those units, to which about 7,187 young people — not all of them Jewish — belong.
The Reform movement represents about 1,000 congregations and 40 percent of the nation's 6 million Jews, including 10,000 in the Chicago area. It ordains openly gay and lesbian men and women as rabbis.
Kedar estimated that "virtually every Reform temple in the Chicago area will say, 'Boy Scouts don't have a home here.'"
