The Boy Scouts of America’s (BSA) policy of excluding gay youth and adult leaders directly conflicts with San Diego’s Human Dignity Ordinance, a local group argues, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation. The BSA’s use of public land in Balboa Park has sparked a series of legal battles and controversy in San Diego since 2000.

Scouting for All (SFA), a group that advocates the restoration of the traditionally unbiased values of scouting as expressed and embodied in the scout oath and scout law, will hold its seventh annual rally on Sunday, Oct. 8, at 11:00 a.m. in front of the Boy Scouts’ headquarters in Balboa Park, located at 1207 Upas St.

Individuals from the GLBT, straight, non-theist and faith-based communities will speak in protest of BSA national policy, which specifically excludes youth who are gay, atheist or agnostic. Youth who are the children of GLBT or atheist parents are also excluded.

“Unless we keep it open and in front of the public eye, it’s going to get swept under the rug,” SFA Southwestern regional director Howard Menzer said. “This is our way of keeping it open and above ground and in the public eye.”

SFA board member Mick Rabin, who is straight, is a former Eagle Scout who resigned his badge in June 2000 as a public statement against the exclusionary policies of the BSA.

The same month Rabin left the Boy Scouts, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to overturn a unanimous New Jersey Supreme Court ruling in 1999 that said the dismissal of gay scout leader James Dale had violated the state’s anti-discrimination law. According to the ruling, the Boy Scouts have a constitutional right to exclude openly gay men from serving as troop leaders because the group compels members to swear an oath of duty under God.

Rabin said the intention of the SFA rally each year is to remind the public that the Boy Scouts issue has not disappeared in San Diego.

“[W]hen we’re at Pride passing out flyers and getting people to sign petitions, a lot of LGBT people have never even heard of the scouting problem. They have no idea,” Rabin said. “We’re trying to reach the larger community, not just the LGBT but the atheist, the straight community, anybody who’s willing to hear. It’s an opportunity for us to rally support around the issue of acceptance.”

The Boy Scouts have utilized Balboa Park since 1920. In 1957, San Diego issued a 50-year lease to the Desert Pacific Council. Under the terms of the lease, due to expire in 2007, the Scouts have had exclusive use of 18 acres of park property in city-owned Balboa Park for $1 per year. They also receive free use of an aquatic facility on city-owned Fiesta Island in Mission Bay under a separate lease. In 2000, the Desert Pacific Council of the Boy Scouts asked for an early renewal.

The ACLU then filed a lawsuit against San Diego and the Boy Scouts in August 2000 on behalf of lesbian couple Lori and Lynn Barnes-Wallace and agnostic couple Michael and Valerie Breen. Both couples have sons who want to join the Scouts.

The San Diego City Council voted 6-3 in December 2001 to renew the Boy Scouts’ lease for a 25-year term and imposed a $2,500-per-year administrative fee on the Scouts. Councilmembers Toni Atkins and Donna Frye along with former Councilmember Ralph Inzunza voted against the lease extension. According to the terms of the lease, the Scouts were required to spend $1.7 million to upgrade Camp Balboa.

In July 2003, U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones Jr. ruled the Boy Scouts’ lease of public land in Balboa Park violates constitutional separation of church and state, and said San Diego acted improperly when it leased 18 acres of camp space to the group. Jones ruled the Boy Scouts is a religious organization and their lease violated federal law that prohibits the government promotion of religion.

The City Council voted 6-2 in December 2003 to settle with the ACLU and pull out of all future protests that the Boy Scouts may file on the lease issue. Under the agreement, San Diego paid $790,000 of the ACLU’s legal fees and $160,000 in court costs.

The BSA have subsequently appealed Judge Jones’ ruling. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on Feb. 14 as to whether the Boy Scouts has a right to utilize Balboa Park.

Boy Scouts attorney George A. Davidson said in court the BSA has no theology and only holds the position that children should “do duty to God” in order to become productive citizens. He argued the BSA has few references to religion in its manual and has a practice of “punting it back to parents and religious leaders” when it comes to religious matters.

After the Feb. 14 court session, a decision on the appeal wasn’t expected for another three to six months.

Menzer, a former Eagle Scout, said it’s crucial to remain vocal and does not see how the BSA could win the appeal.

“The lease that they did sign said if they lost in a court of law the lease is null and void,” he said. “… So their appeal is really for nothing and we’re just waiting for the Supreme Court to come through.”

Rabin thinks the appeal decision could go either way and could reach the federal level, like the Boy Scouts of America v. Dale case did.

“Even the people who are pretty intimately involved in it are really pretty unsure of the outcome,” he said. “We’ve said it’s a slam dunk and all that stuff but, in the end, I don’t think it’s a done deal until we really go all the way down the line.”

Davidson told the Gay & Lesbian Times the appellate court’s decision could come at any time, but said he could not comment any further.

“There’s nothing to talk about until it has been decided. It’s up to the court now,” he said.

In April 2004, Judge Jones also ruled the Boy Scouts’ lease of a Fiesta Island aquatics center on city-owned land is just as unconstitutional as its Balboa Park lease. Jones said the lease of the half-acre aquatics center violates the constitutional separation of church and state because the Boy Scouts is a religious organization.

According to The Associated Press, Judge Jones ruled that San Diego showed preferential treatment to the Boy Scouts, “an admittedly religious, albeit nonsectarian, and discriminatory organization,” because it negotiated exclusively with the group for the lease of the aquatics center.

The Scouts had leased the half-acre Fiesta Island property since 1987 at no charge, spent $2 million to build the aquatics center and provided for its maintenance.

Rabin said he believes gay people will some day be accepted into the Boy Scouts, but it won’t be due to the kindness of their hearts.

“They will never change the policy because it’s the correct thing to do or because it’s the ethical thing to do,” he said. “They will only do it because it affects them where it hits them the worst, which is in the pocketbook.”

For more information about SFA, visit www.sdscoutingforall.org.