Scouts Divided

In defending Scouts, social conservatives have expressed two concerns. They do not want young boys to view gays as "accepted or affirmed," says Family Research Council president Ken Connor. And they worry about sexual abuse, despite the fact that gay authority figures don't pose a disproportionate threat to kids. "The leaders I talk to were worried about how you explain to parents that they're sending their children into the woods with an openly gay scoutmaster, regardless of one's position on homosexual rights," says Heather MacDonald, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

Some religious institutions were openly relieved by the ruling, especially the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has adopted scouting as its official youth program. More than 400,000 Mormon boys participate in church-sponsored troops, 13 percent of scouting's total. As a result, observers say Mormons exercise unparalleled clout over the national board, which for years was sprinkled with top executives from Eastern firms and now attracts mostly conservative civic leaders tied to the churches that sponsor troops. Before the Supreme Court ruling the Salt Lake City-based church threatened to break away from the fold if forced to tolerate homosexuals. Such a move would devastate scouting, a ranking leader says. "There is unadulterated fear that they're going to bail out, that they're going to start their own program," says the Scout leader, who requested anonymity. "The Mormons have all the cards." (Shields, the Scouts' spokesman, says that is not the case.)

In order to win the Supreme Court case, the Boy Scouts argued that they are not a public accommodation open to all, as many had presumed, but a private "expressive" association restricted to like-minded individuals. The court bought the distinction--but that gave Scouts a new problem: since they receive millions in state and federal funding--some of it spent on the jamboree--did they now still have a right to the assistance? Despite an executive order prohibiting discrimination in federal education and training programs, well over $5 million in taxpayers' money was spent on last week's extravaganza, according to Scout sources. After the court ruling, government compliance officers looked into the legal conundrum. On Sept. 1, 2000, Attorney General Janet Reno issued a proclamation declaring the jamboree was not federally directed training per se, but a private event to which the government was providing logistical support--perfectly allowable, therefore, even for an organization that discriminates.

A closer look at the jamboree, which George W. Bush was expected to visit over the weekend, reveals a different picture. Federal employees are indeed teaching skills and lessons. In fact, the Department of the Interior is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to stock a trout pond and sent several hundred staffers to teach courses the Scouts must pass in order to receive selected merit badges, including fly-fishing. Department officials defend their presence, saying anybody driving past the jamboree is welcome to attend, even gay kids and adults. But at Fort A.P. Hill, Ben Jelsema, chairman of the fishing program for the jamboree, was turning away non-Scouts, saying those areas "are not open to the public."

For all the discussion, protests at the jamboree were meager. A few adults wore rainbow ribbons alongside their badges, while men and boys around the post tried floating potential compromises. Two friends from LaGrange, Ga.--Bernard Newman and Brandon Thomas, 15 and 16, respectively--were saying they thought the Scouts should be more flexible, so that gay kids, if not scoutmasters, could be allowed in. But otherwise, the gathering proceeded without a hitch. "The young men are oblivious to it," said Wilmington, Dela., troop leader Mike Bernhardt, 55, wearing his uniform at the jamboree.

Back at headquarters in Texas, Boy Scouts executives aren't talking, preferring instead to issue periodic defenses on their Web site. "We are a private organization." says the spokesman. "We are handling this discussion within the organization."