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Scouts hit deadline for 'pay-up-or-move' ultimatum 
'Gay' issue prompts raising rent for Philadelphia HQ by $199,999 a year

A deadline is looming today for officials with the Cradle of Liberty Boy Scouts organization in Philadelphia either to agree to a rent hike of $199,999 a year for their headquarters building or move.

Neither officials with the Cradle of Liberty chapter nor the national headquarters for Boy Scouts of America immediately returned WND's calls requesting comment.

The dilemma was created when several members of the city hierarchy in Philadelphia, reportedly including an open homosexual, ordered the council to abandon the national group's ban on openly homosexual members and leaders or the city would renege on a decades-old agreement.

For almost 80 years, since 1928, the Scouts have used the building for their headquarters under a lease, but that is set to expire and officials now are demanding $200,000 a year for rent, up from the previous rate of $1.

"If they want to accept the national policies of the Boy Scout organization they have to be able to pay for it," Philadelphia City Councilman Jack Kelly told Fox News.

A letter from Diaz set the deadline today for the Scouts to sign a new lease at the new rate or face eviction by the city.

John Braxton, a member of the Cradle of Liberty council and a retired judge, said the organization simply cannot afford the steep rent increase.

The organization serves about 64,000 youth in the region, officials said.

"It's disappointing, and it's certainly a threat," Jeff Jubelirer, a spokesman for the council, said recently.

He said the additional money would have to be taken from programs for youth, which could cost the organization 30 new Cub Scout chapters.

Council officials have said they were unable to renounce the national organization's long-established policy of not allowing participation by atheists or open homosexuals. That policy was affirmed as legal and legitimate in a 2000 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But city officials allege that is discrimination and said they wouldn't rent taxpayer-owned property for a dollar a year to such people.

In a column, Robert Knight of the Culture and Media Institute of the Media Research Center said the Philadelphia decision is unfair.

Knight, in his critique of a Washington Post report on the dispute, noted the Scouts "built the building with their own money and then gave it to the city in 1928."

He also noted the Scouts' lease was "in perpetuity," but the city simply decided to renege.

"The Scouts bar openly homosexual scoutmasters and members for moral reasons and for the sake of protecting young boys from possible harm, not because they are motivated by bigotry or prejudice," he wrote. "The Post article read as if the Scouts have no rational reason for wanting to determine whether prospective leaders or members are attracted sexually to males."

Local Scout officials had tried to institute a statement that "prejudice, intolerance and unlawful discrimination in any form are unacceptable within the ranks of Cradle of Liberty," but national scouting officials required adherence to the ban on homosexuals, they said.

"If I do not receive an executed lease, signed by the Boy Scouts, to remain as tenants paying a fair market rent, we will begin looking for alternative tenants that can take over the property June 1, 2008," Diaz said.

The Scouts' own guidelines, published on their website, note the organization was founded "on the premise of teaching boys moral and ethical values through an outdoor program that challenges them and teaches them respect for nature, one another, and themselves."

"The BSA respects the rights of people and groups who hold values that differ from those encompassed in the Scout Oath and Law, and the BSA makes no effort to deny the rights of those whose views differ to hold their attitudes or opinions," the group continued.

"Scouts come from all walks of life and are exposed to diversity in Scouting that they may not otherwise experience. The Boy Scouts of America aims to allow youth to live and learn as children and enjoy Scouting without immersing them in the politics of the day.

"We hope that our supporters will continue to value the Boy Scouts of America's respect for diversity and the positive impact Scouting has on young people's lives. We realize that not every individual nor organization subscribes to the same beliefs that the BSA does, but we hope that all Americans can be as respectful of our beliefs as we are of theirs and support the overall good Scouting does in American communities," the group said.

In order to protect children, other rules also have been imposed, including, "One-on-one contact between adults and youth members is not permitted," and, "When camping, no youth is permitted to sleep in the tent of an adult other than his own parent or guardian."

WND recently reported citizens outraged by the city's ultimatum crashed the e-mail system of the Philadelphia mayor's office.

About 150,000 Boy Scout-related e-mails were removed from the city's e-mail system, reported the Bulletin newspaper of Philadelphia.

"We were deluged," said Terry Phillis, chief information officer for Mayor John Street. "We pulled the messages off so they wouldn't take the system down. It had to be done to protect system integrity."

City officials in San Francisco and Boston have made similar decisions to displace the Scouts because of the group's behavior code.

Such disputes virtually never arose until homosexual organizations challenged the Scouts' policy, but lost at the U.S. Supreme Court level in that 2000 ruling.

Then activist groups turned their sights on property arrangements such as in Philadelphia, where the Scouts have been using the donated property for years.

Former WND columnist Hans Zeiger, who wrote a book about the Scouts and their battles, "Get Off My Honor: The Assault on the Boy Scouts of America," said the Boy Scouts since 1911 have been reaching out to the disabled, racial and ethnic minorities, Native Americans and inner city children with the lessons of right and wrong.

"When it comes to a Scout troop, sexual orientation is an issue that goes beyond differences in skin color or economic status. It affects such matters as tenting arrangements and the development of pre-teenage masculinity in a close-knit group of boys and men," he wrote.

"So here's what I say to the radical Left in the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed … Take away the funding. Seize the 75-year-old headquarters building. The Scouts can survive without it," he wrote at the time.

WND also reported earlier this year a Scouts victory when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit dismissed a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union to stop the Defense Department from allowing the Scouts to hold its National Jamboree every four years at Fort A.P. Hill in Fredericksburg, Va.

Boy Scouts ignore 'pay-up-or-move' ultimatum 
Philadelphia threatening $199,999 rent increase or eviction

Officials with the Cradle of Liberty Boy Scouts organization in Philadelphia have ignored a city deadline either to promise to pay a rent hike of $199,999 a year or agree to move out of the organization's historic headquarters.

Officials with the national headquarters for Boy Scouts of America declined comment, telling WND the issue had been left up to Cradle of Liberty organization officials to explain, and they did not return WND requests for a comment.

However, council spokesman Jeff Jubelirer told the Associated Press the group can neither go against a national organization policy, nor can it pay the rent, which the city raised from $1 a year to $200,000.

The city had demanded a decision from the Boy Scouts by Monday on whether they would pay the rent, raised by the city after the organization refused city demands to drop a national policy banning homosexuals as members or Scout leaders.

"If I do not receive an executed lease, signed by the Boy Scouts, to remain as tenants paying a fair market rent, we will begin looking for alternative tenants that can take over the property June 1, 2008," Romulo Diaz, the city solicitor, said earlier. He, according to Philadelphia media reports, is an open homosexual.

The Scouts, however, "do not feel obliged to respond to that date," Jubelirer told the Associated Press. "We didn't feel it was urgent to respond."

Diaz issue a statement that Philadephia will "respect" the Scouting organization's right to respond before it takes further steps.

"For nearly four years the city has tried to reach an agreement under which the council would renounce its discriminatory policy against openly gay youth and adults," Diaz wrote. "Unfortunately, the council has stated repeatedly that it cannot change its policy."

Issues such as these were virtually nonexistent before 2000. That year, a challenge was raised by homosexuals to the private organization's policy and the dispute went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which affirmed the Boy Scouts right to set membership requirements.

Then activist groups turned their sights on property arrangements such as in Philadelphia, where the Scouts have been using the donated property for years.

Former WND columnist Hans Zeiger, who wrote a book about the Scouts and their battles, "Get Off My Honor: The Assault on the Boy Scouts of America," said the Boy Scouts since 1911 have been reaching out to the disabled, racial and ethnic minorities, Native Americans and inner city children with the lessons of right and wrong.

"When it comes to a Scout troop, sexual orientation is an issue that goes beyond differences in skin color or economic status. It affects such matters as tenting arrangements and the development of pre-teenage masculinity in a close-knit group of boys and men," he wrote.

"So here's what I say to the radical Left in the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed … Take away the funding. Seize the 75-year-old headquarters building. The Scouts can survive without it," he wrote at the time.

In Philadelphia, the Scouts since 1928 have used the building for their headquarters under a lease, but that is set to expire and officials now are demanding $200,000 a year for rent, up from the previous rate of $1.

"If they want to accept the national policies of the Boy Scout organization they have to be able to pay for it," Philadelphia City Councilman Jack Kelly told Fox News.

John Braxton, a member of the Cradle of Liberty council and a retired judge, said the organization simply cannot afford the steep rent increase.

The organization serves about 64,000 youth in the region, officials said.

Jubelirer said the additional money would cost the operating money for another 30 Scout troops.

Council officials have said they were unable to renounce the national organization's long-established policy of not allowing participation by atheists or open homosexuals.

But city officials allege that is discrimination, and said they couldn't rent taxpayer-owned property for a dollar a year to such people.

In a column, Robert Knight of the Culture and Media Institute of the Media Research Center cited the underlying unfairness of such a decision in Philadelphia.

Knight, in his critique of a Washington Post report on the dispute, noted that the Scouts "built the building with their own money, and then gave it to the city in 1928."

He also noted the Scouts' lease was "in perpetuity" but the city simply decided to renege.

"The Scouts bar openly homosexual Scoutmasters and members for moral reasons and for the sake of protecting young boys from possible harm, not because they are motivated by bigotry or prejudice," he wrote. "The Post article read as if the Scouts have no rational reason for wanting to determine whether prospective leaders or members are attracted sexually to males."

Local Scout officials had tried to institute a statement that "prejudice, intolerance and unlawful discrimination in any form are unacceptable within the ranks of Cradle of Liberty," but national scouting officials required adherence to the ban on homosexuals, they said.

The Scouts' own guidelines, published on their website, note the organization was founded "on the premise of teaching boys moral and ethical values through an outdoor program that challenges them and teaches them respect for nature, one another, and themselves."

"The BSA respects the rights of people and groups who hold values that differ from those encompassed in the Scout Oath and Law, and the BSA makes not effort to deny the rights of those whose views differ to hold their attitudes or opinions," the group continued.

"Scouts come from all walks of life and are exposed to diversity in Scouting that they may not otherwise experience. The Boy Scouts of America aims to allow youth to live and learn as children and enjoy Scouting without immersing them in the politics of the day.

"We hope that our supporters will continue to value the Boy Scouts of America's respect for diversity and the positive impact Scouting has on young people's lives. We realize that not every individual nor organization subscribes to the same beliefs that the BSA does, but we hope that all Americans can be as respectful of our beliefs as we are of theirs and support the overall good Scouting does in American communities," the group said.

In order to protect children, other rules also have been imposed, including "One-on-one contact between adults and youth members is not permitted," and "When camping, no youth is permitted to sleep in the tent of an adult other than his own parent or guardian."

WND recently reported citizens outraged by the city's ultimatum crashed the e-mail system of the Philadelphia mayor's office.

About 150,000 Boy Scout-related e-mails were removed from the city's e-mail system, reported the Bulletin newspaper of Philadelphia.

"We were deluged," said Terry Phillis, chief information officer for Mayor John Street. "We pulled the messages off so they wouldn't take the system down. It had to be done to protect system integrity."

City officials in San Francisco and Boston have made similar decisions to displace the Scouts because of the group's behavior code.

WND also reported earlier this year a Scouts victory when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit dismissed a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union to stop the Defense Department from allowing the Scouts to hold its National Jamboree every four years at Fort A.P. Hill in Fredericksburg, Va.

Philly Boy Scouts lose meeting hall
Published: Dec. 6, 2007 at 5:08 PM

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Philadelphia, the birthplace of the Boy Scouts, will be evicting the organization from the Scouts' city-owned meeting hall over a gay-rights fight.

The Philadelphia Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the seventh-largest chapter of the organization, will be tossed from the Beaux Arts building, a place they have called home since 1928, for refusing to denounce the organization's ban on homosexuality.

The city owns the half-acre of land where the building stands and is bound by laws against discrimination.

"You cannot be in a city-owned facility being subsidized by the taxpayers and not have language in your lease that talks about non-discrimination," City Councilman Darrell Clarke told The New York Times Thursday. "Negotiations are over."

The Boy Scouts have maintained that homosexuality would be inconsistent with their stated values. They could have legally stayed in the building if they paid an annual rent of $200,000 per year; however they said that would cut into their summer-camp funds for needy children.

Philly Boy Scouts lose meeting hall (http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/12/06/philly_boy_scouts_lose_meeting_hall/7449/)

I guess legitimizing perversive sex is more important than a scouting organization for children. They need to quit trying to destroy organizations that don't agree with their in your face lifestyle.

As an Eagle Scout, I'm very happy that the Boy Scouts stood their ground. I am also praying that someone comes forward, and donates a building to them.

Boy Scouts' banishment
threatens Catholic Church 
Philly precedent could be used
against museums, radio station

Pro-homosexual Philadelphia officials' campaign to evict the Boy Scouts of America from their long-held regional headquarters on city-owned ground will create a precedent that could endanger dozens of other groups in the city, including the Catholic Church, as well as museums and a public radio station.

The issue: The City Council has decided the Boy Scouts, because they prohibit participation by open homosexuals, do not comply with the city's anti-discrimination policies and can no longer rent their headquarters for $1 a year, as they have since the city approved its original resolution on the plan 80 years ago.

The city had set a Dec. 3 deadline for the Scouts' Cradle of Liberty Council to agree to pay $200,000 a year, instead of $1, but the Scouts simply ignored that deadline, and negotiations apparently have broken off.

Assuming there are no changes in circumstances, that would mean the Scouts would have to be out of the building, which they built and paid for with their own funds decades ago, on June 1.

That left many, including a black leadership organization called Project 21, headed by WND columnist Mychal Massie, enraged.

"I live close to Philadelphia and am aware of the problems plaguing the city," said Project 21 member Jimmie Hollis. "The fact that the City Council is taking exception to the Boy Scouts is an outrage. With so much to fix, why are they so willing to instead hobble an organization trying to help people?"

Project 21 said the focus on the Scouts' prohibition of open homosexuals is wrong. That condemnation had come from city councilman Darrell Clarke, who told the New York Times, "you cannot be in a city-owned facility being subsidized by the taxpayers and not have language in your lease that talks about nondiscrimination."

Scouting spokesman Gregg Shields said such "open homosexuality" would be inconsistent with the group's values. That policy was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 when it ruled the Boy Scouts of America is a private organization that can set its own membership rules under the First Amendment.

The headquarters building, the Marks Center, was built by the BSA, but the half-acre parcel of land is owned by the city. The city council voted last year to renege on its ongoing $1-a-year lease and decided to set the rent at $200,000 a year, something BSA leaders say they cannot pay and still serve the 69,000 youths who benefit from their programs.

"If the Boy Scouts were anti-God, championed homosexuality and were anti-establishment, I would venture to say they would find themselves welcome in Philadelphia," said Massie. "It's the fact that they stick to and seek to promote a responsible and reasonable code of ethics that makes them a target of the anti-family left that tends to dominate urban governments such as Philadelphia's these days."

The nonprofit group, sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research, has been a leading voice of the African-American community since the 1990s.

A spokesman for the Philadelphia Scouts, Jeff Jubelirer, told WND there would be several significant issues to address should the city pursue an eviction. He said there are about 75 other organizations in Philadelphia with similar building or land-use arrangements as the Scouts.

Their original agreement was that the city allowed the Scouts to use the city land in perpetuity for $1 a year, but the Scouts would have to build their own building and maintain it. That was the agreement on which the Council decided to renege.

The city "is making a value judgment" about the Scouts, because the other organizations are not being given the same ultimatums and deadlines, he said.

"They're all great organizations. There's nothing wrong with them," he said. And they have lease arrangements that range from payments of $1 to $100 a year for various uses.

One such institution is the Catholic Church, which does not allow women ministers, he noted.

"How are they going to justify differentiation in treatment," he wondered. "There are wonderful arts organizations, museums, a public radio station. They're on that list."

He said the other issue is the improvements the Scouts have made to the land, including the building and the $2 million in renovations done in just recent years. The original agreement envisioned the Scouts continuing to use the land "in perpetuity," so will those improvements then be reimbursed if the city reneges, he wondered.

And if that city agreement isn't upheld, he asked, are there other agreements that likewise will simply be abandoned?

Jubilerer said the city, as of now, is applying its pressure to a single group, and not taking into consideration that all groups in similar circumstances should be treated similarly.

The campaign against the Boy Scouts has been pursued by Romulo Diaz, the city solicitor, who, according to Philadelphia media reports, is an open homosexual.

He had set the Dec. 3 deadline. The Scouts, however, "do not feel obliged to respond to that date," Jubelirer said. And Diaz followed up with a statement the city would "respect" the Scouting organization's right to respond before it takes further steps.

Such issues were virtually nonexistent before 2000. That year, a challenge was raised by homosexuals to the private organization's policy and the dispute went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which affirmed the Boy Scouts right to set membership requirements.

Then activist groups turned their sights on property arrangements such as in Philadelphia, where the Scouts have been using the donated property for years.

Former WND columnist Hans Zeiger, who wrote a book about the Scouts and their battles, "Get Off My Honor: The Assault on the Boy Scouts of America," said the Boy Scouts since 1911 have been reaching out to the disabled, racial and ethnic minorities, Native Americans and inner city children with the lessons of right and wrong.

"When it comes to a Scout troop, sexual orientation is an issue that goes beyond differences in skin color or economic status. It affects such matters as tenting arrangements and the development of pre-teenage masculinity in a close-knit group of boys and men," he wrote.

"So here's what I say to the radical Left in the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed … Take away the funding. Seize the 75-year-old headquarters building. The Scouts can survive without it," he wrote at the time.

In a column, Robert Knight of the Culture and Media Institute of the Media Research Center cited the underlying unfairness of such a decision in Philadelphia.

Knight, in his critique of a Washington Post report on the dispute, noted that the Scouts "built the building with their own money, and then gave it to the city in 1928."

He also noted the Scouts' lease was "in perpetuity" but the city simply decided to renege.

"The Scouts bar openly homosexual Scoutmasters and members for moral reasons and for the sake of protecting young boys from possible harm, not because they are motivated by bigotry or prejudice," he wrote. "The Post article read as if the Scouts have no rational reason for wanting to determine whether prospective leaders or members are attracted sexually to males."

WND recently reported citizens outraged by the city's ultimatum crashed the e-mail system of the Philadelphia mayor's office.

About 150,000 Boy Scout-related e-mails were removed from the city's e-mail system, reported the Bulletin newspaper of Philadelphia.

"We were deluged," said Terry Phillis, chief information officer for Mayor John Street. "We pulled the messages off so they wouldn't take the system down. It had to be done to protect system integrity."

City officials in San Francisco and Boston have made similar decisions to displace the Scouts because of the group's behavior code.

WND also reported earlier this year a Scouts victory when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit dismissed a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union to stop the Defense Department from allowing the Scouts to hold its National Jamboree every four years at Fort A.P. Hill in Fredericksburg, Va.

Philadelphia doesn't care for the welfare of the Boys, in Scouting. They can see only their own short sightless ways. There are reasons why, Philadelphia is called the city of brotherly love. It is now plain for the world to now see, that homosexuality rules the city, not NORMAL folks.


Since the Boy Scouts built the building, they should have gotten fair market value from the city. Seems like the Scouts give, and Philadelphia takes away.


Yes I know, mine was one of them. :D :D

From what I understand, we almost crashed the email system. ;D ;D