Bill to Remove Tax Breaks to Orgs That Discriminate Introduced in CA

[Carolyn Marie]

The bill, if passed, would eliminate tax breaks for businesses or organizations that discriminate against LGBT folks, including TG folks.

http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/California-bill-No-tax-breaks-if-your-group-is-against-gay-transgender-or-atheist-members-202207031.html

Carolyn Marie

[VickySGV]

I am almost -- almost -- feeling sorry for the BSA at this point. The real culprit is the fact that its national board of directors has become over packed with menbers of two religious groups who doctrinally oppose GLBT, and who regrettably comprise the largest group of franchisee's of the Boy Scout program. The core managers of the BSA are pretty much stuck with what comes over from their board of directors.

As a former employee of the state agency that will oversee the administration of this law, I am actually cringing at the amount of paperwork and administrative legal work this will take. The fact that religious groups that sponsor scout units will not be penalized is going to lead to a paper labyrinth that may not end where this is designed to go.

Never the less, I hope the threat of such a law at least adds to a shaking up of where things will go.

[Guest Mia J]

Good for California.

It is not only the LBGT community that the BSA discriminates against. Members of BSA need to work for a religion badge and the BSA has long refused to acknowledged a religious badge for earth based religions.

My stepson quit BSA partly because of the constant discrimination and lecturing on how members needed to be good upstanding Christians.

I was in 4H and it was wonderful. They like the girl scouts are accepting of LGBT youth and leaders.

Mia

[VickySGV]

It is not only the LBGT community that the BSA discriminates against. Members of BSA need to work for a religion badge and the BSA has long refused to acknowledged a religious badge for earth based religions.

My stepson quit BSA partly because of the constant discrimination and lecturing on how members needed to be good upstanding Christians.

Actually, there is no requirement to obtain a Religion Badge in any of the national program requirements for any Boy Scout rank. What your stepson was subject to was from the leadership of a particular unit, which unfortunately could happen, but did not have to.

The religious recogniton awards program includes Buddhist, Hindi, Muslim, Jewish, and several other Non Christian faiths and belief systems as well as programs for such widely divergent Christian groups as UUC, Orthodox and Roman Catholicism, LDS, The Episcopal Church and a single badge for a combined group of Fundamentalist churches. These programs are meant to encourage the boy to explore their own individual beliefs within their own faith and counseled by their own religious leaders. While there are no specific emblem programs for Wiccan or Native American beliefs the actual National policy was that those beliefs would be honored and respected. As an Assistant District / Council Commissioner I often had to remind charterd units of the fact that even units sponsored by Churches could not proselytize or demand adherence to specific religious practices or beliefs of any unit member.

The problem is that Boy Scouting is a franchised program to local Sponsoring Organizations that do inject their own biases and unhelpful leanings into things. The Boy Scouts Of America does provide training classes for Unit Leaders where it is stressed that every boys relgious faith was to be respected. The problem there was that all too many Leaders thought they did not need this training. I was a trainer for new leaders, and know what I taught on the subject. From what I know, even self described atheists may have a spiritual side that fits closely to what would fulfill the real meaning behind the BSA religion emphasis, I have in fact seen cases where that did fulfill the rank requirements in many units, but it did not make the headlines.

If the Boy Scouts do allow the Local Unit leadership acceptance of GLBT people this coming May, the best thing would be for GLBT organizations to come together and become Sponsoring Organizations of units where we as adults can serve, and where we can apply the open and TRULY accepting policies that are available as the program currently exists. It is the Sponsoring Organizations at the minute who are the program's major demons.