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[The water cooler - What Eastsiders are talking about - By Ann Garretson]

"Should the Boy Scouts be allowed to ban gays from their organization?"
(asked at Crossroads Shopping Center on 08-12-99; published in the EJ on 08-15-99)


[pt.]Linda Vogt, Mom & musician, Redmond
[blue rule]
"My feeling is more that they should not be allowed to ban them because, to my way of thinking, it's a form of discrimination. I can see the argument on both sides as the Boy Scouts is a private organization... I was a Den Leader for three years and they do try to have open policies. They won't ban any religion. Why this, then?"

[pt.]Tim Hosker, Receptionist, Renton
[blue rule]
"I don't think they should be banned. They're humans... I just got out of the service and the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy -- well, I believe it was good because I don't know how some of the other servicemen would take having openly gay people around... But being as the Boy Scouts is a kid's organization, I wouldn't want gays pushing their sexual orientation on the kids."

[pt.]Pablo Tellez, Computer programmer, Puyallup
[blue rule]
"The way I see it is, since they are a private organization, they should be able to hold to whatever rules they have."

[pt.]Eric Cohen, Teacher, Bellevue
[blue rule]
"I'm not a constitutional lawyer, but basically I can see the issues both ways. The idea that it's a private organization and to force that organization to accept members -- that would be problematic. It seems innocuous in this case but if 1,200 Neo-Nazis forced themselves into some sort of minority or what-not organization, it would seem much more dubious."

[pt.]Bryan Depaw, Seafood retailer, Shoreline
[blue rule]
"I do not think they should be able to ban gays. I don't think it has anything to do with what the Boy Scouts are all about."

[pt.]Rick Schurman, Technology manager, Kirkland
[blue rule]
"Yes. I don't think personal sexual lifestyles have any place in an organization whose goal is child development."

 

[blue rule]

© 1999 by the Bellevue, WA-based Eastside Journal newspaper.

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