Posted by Phil Lee (216.250.238.102) on November 18, 2000 at 08:04:
Group likes Scouts in school, opposes ban on anti-gay bias
By Amanda J. Crawford, Sun Staff, Originally published Nov 16 2000
A group of parents and residents called on the county school board last night to keep the Boy Scouts in local schools and to ban language prohibiting discrimination against homosexuals in the anti-bias policy.
The group - about 50 of whom wore "Keep the Scouts in the Schools" stickers - decried the homosexual lifestyle.
More than a dozen members of the group, including Del. Janet Greenip of District 33, addressed the board and asked it not to follow the lead of school systems elsewhere in the country in closing facilities to Scouting because of its policy prohibiting the participation of homosexuals.
'Opening up Pandora's box'
After telling the board that he had been molested by a male camp counselor when he was 10, Tres Kerns said that if the board were to adopt language banning discrimination based on sexual orientation it would be like "opening up Pandora's box."
"I'm not saying all homosexuals are pedophiles," said Kerns, executive director of the Severna Park-based Citizens for Parents' Rights. "But when you open up this door, what moral ground do you have to stand on?"
Beth Wiley, a Howard County parent, showed the board a book about teen homosexuality she said she found in a guidance office at a Howard school after that school board incorporated sexual orientation into its anti-discrimination policy.
"It is the worst thing you can do," she said.
Cape St. Claire rally
Kerns said the group wanted to respond to requests by parents urging the board to review its policy toward the Scouts and consider the inclusion of sexual orientation in its anti-discrimination policy. He and others organized a rally in Cape St. Claire last month in response to a possible end of community sponsorship of a Scout troop there.
At least four school districts in Maryland - Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's and Talbot - have anti-discrimination policies that explicitly mention sexual orientation.
In September, an Annapolis couple, Susie Collins and her husband, Joe Thompson, urged the board to ban the Boy Scouts from school buildings, calling discriminatory the organization's policy that prohibits members or leaders who are gay or atheist.