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Silverfoxesclub-digest In this issue:
-Schools Chief Bars Events By Scouts, Citing Bias
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Subject: Schools Chief Bars Events By Scouts, Citing Bias
From today's NY Times.
Schools Chief Bars Events By Scouts, Citing Bias
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Schools Chancellor Harold O. Levy yesterday barred New York City public
schools from sponsoring most activities of the Boy Scouts of America,
saying that the Scouts had violated Board of Education policy by
discriminating against gays.
Mr. Levy's policy bars the Scouts from bidding on contracts with city
schools, and it prevents schools from sponsoring Scout troops or allowing
the Scouts to recruit members during school hours.
The practical effect of Mr. Levy's decision was unclear yesterday,
because the Board of Education will still allow the Scouts to use school
space after hours. There are 7,000 Boy Scout troops and Cub Scout packs
now meeting in New York City school buildings - representing roughly
140,000 boys - according to a New York spokesman for the Scouts. The
spokesman did not know yesterday how many of those groups were sponsored
by schools rather than by other community organizations.
But the chancellor's decision is a symbolic blow to the Boy Scouts,
aligning the nation's largest school system, with more than one million
students, against the group. The Scouts have already had to contend with
similar sanctions by other school systems and municipalities. Many,
though not all, of the organizations have acted since a United States
Supreme Court decision in June upheld the right of the Boy Scouts to
exclude gays.
"The board has a policy against discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation, and my job is to enforce the board's policy," Mr. Levy said
in a telephone interview, adding that, as a former Boy Scout, he was
acting regretfully, with hopes that the Scouts will change their policy
so that city schools can embrace them again.
Patrick Stuhlman, a spokesman for the Boy Scouts in New York, said last
night that scouting officials had not seen Mr. Levy's decision, which was
announced at 6:30 p.m. yesterday, and could not comment on it.
But Mr. Levy released a letter addressed to him, also dated yesterday,
from Daniel R. Gasparo, chief executive of the Boy Scouts of America
Greater New York Councils, asking the chancellor to reconsider. In his
letter, Mr. Gasparo insisted that the Scouts' New York operations did not
discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
"Most people who have taken time to hear about the true nature of our
programs, outside the hype of the media, find that we do not discriminate
and that we provide vital services for the city's young people," Mr.
Gasparo wrote. "My concern is that a citywide policy would not serve the
interests of many of your children and their families."
Mr. Gasparo suggested that he had been working to change the national
organization's policy toward gays, but he offered no specifics. "In the
five months since the Supreme Court ruling, we have made some progress
with our national office in broadening their views," he wrote. "This is a
continually evolving issue, both in the Boy Scouts and in society."
Mr. Levy's decision was hailed as a precedent by gay rights groups.
"Chancellor Levy has taken a life- saving position by saying that New
York City schools will not be accomplices to discrimination," said M. K.
Cullen, director of public policy for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight
Education Network, a nonprofit group based in New York City that lobbies
against discrimination in schools.
Ms. Cullen said that public schools across the country were among the top
three sponsors of Boy Scout troops, and that one in nine public schools
in America sponsored a troop. "This is a turning point," she said.
Mr. Levy said that the Learning for Life program, intended to teach
public school students practical skills like balancing a checkbook and
the importance of good health, was not affected by his ruling. This
program is donated by the Greater New York Councils to about 200 schools
and is not discriminatory, he said.
The Boy Scouts now have an $800,000 contract with the school system to
provide winter and summer camping services, Mr. Levy said. He said he
would allow that contract to continue until it expires on April 30, 2002.
But the Scouts will not be able to rebid the contract, he said, unless
they change their policy on gays.
"I tried to make a decent judgment here," Mr. Levy said.
William C. Thompson Jr., president of the Board of Education, issued a
statement of support for the chancellor's ruling, saying, "This is the
right thing to do."
The citywide decision comes on the heels of similar resolutions
withdrawing support for the Scouts by 3 of the city's 32 community school
districts. Those resolutions - in District 3, on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan; District 15, in Park Slope, Brooklyn; and District 2, from the
Upper East Side to TriBeCa - had put pressure on Mr. Levy to formulate a
policy throughout the city schools.
Board of Education officials said that while Mr. Levy was sympathetic to
the New York Councils' insistence that the Boy Scouts in New York City do
not discriminate against gays, he could not ignore that they are
officially part of the larger national organization. "I note that the Boy
Scouts of America has declared that an avowed homosexual is not a role
model for the values espoused in Scout Oath and Law," Mr. Levy said in a
letter to Mr. Gasparo, dated yesterday, explaining the new policy.
Mr. Stuhlman said that the New York group left it to sponsoring
organizations to determine who should be a scout leader and that sexual
orientation was not a criterion. Children are also not prohibited from
joining the New York Scouts on the basis of sexual orientation, he said.
But he added that "using these programs as a personal platform for
discussions with children on sexuality or sexual activities is
inappropriate."
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Subject: The four stages of life
1) You believe in Santa Claus.
Subject: RE: The four stages of life
I want Santa Claus. I want Santa Claus. hehe
Edward
Subject: "Queer As Folk" debuts tonight on Showtime
For those interested, the most graphic gay TV series to date, "Queer As
Folk," debuts tonight (Sunday, December 3, 2000) in a 90-minute episode ONLY
on Showtime, its producer, at 10:00 p.m. California time. Check your local
listings for time in your area.
Subject: Re: "Queer As Folk"
Is there any one out there who is willing to tape this "Queer As Folk"
series for me? I will pay in advance for the tapes and shipping and maybe
be very nice to you in other ways that should not be mentioned in a family
newspaper.
Subject: Namibian jails refuse to distribute condoms
Ben Boxer comments:
It has always been home to a wide variety of animal life both
in the wild and now mostly in game reserves. When
Elizabeth Taylor was married to Richard Burton, they
owned a lodge at a game reserve in Namibia.
Namibia was a German colony in the 19th century, and
many Germans have traditionally settled there. The wife of
one of my best friends (he was a bisexual with whom I had an affair) in
Argentina was a
"German" girl born and raised in Namibia when it was still
called South-West Africa. I later visited her family there and
fell in love with the country.
At least one member of the Silverfoxes Club E-list was also
born and grew up in Namibia, although he now lives in South
Africa -- for another few days, that is, because this
adventurous foxhunter, despite being confined to a
wheelchair, will set out this week for a country halfway
around the world where a wonderful silverfox whom he met
through e-mail will welcome him to a Spanish-speaking
country for the Christmas holidays and beyond, with the
possibility that they may even become lovers. I wish them
well.
Hey, guys, do you get my point?
These place names that are meaningless to you are home to
people just like you, given standard variations of culture and
race. They live, they breathe, they suffer, they love, they die.
You may know some of them without realizing that you do,
and if you train yourself to think in those terms, the fact
that assholes who hate people like you and me are ready to
let us all go to hell to satisfy their skewered religious beliefs
or so-called moral principles will crisp your ass as it does
mine.
The good news, not mentioned below, is that gays and
lesbians are getting organized in Namibia and fighting back.
You may not think so, but they are fighting for US, for
YOU, for ME, and for those poor guys down there stuck
behind bars with no comfort but each other. Imagine
yourself in a Namibian prisoner's shoes for only 30 seconds
and then tell me you don't care.
AIDS kills mostly straights in
Africa, millions of them children. I read a survey yesterday that claimed 19
percent of Americans believe if you have AIDS, you deserve it. The
percentage is probably higher than that, given the frightening ignorance
permeating our society today. But then, most of them also believe
that Pat Robertson is a man of God and that Fred Phelps is right when he
says God hates fags and that Jerry Falwell walks on water -- speaking of
which, I watched a TV documentary recently about how cold-blooded
creatures survive. One of the subjects was a little guy a few inches high
who has air pockets in his tiny feet that enable him to run across the
surface of a pond without getting wet. He's called the Jesus Christ lizard.
I kid you not!
Headline:
(The Advocate, 12/02/00)
Text:
Subject: Re: Namibian jails refuse to distribute condoms
Hi Ben, God bless
Subject: Portent of the future
The US Senate will be evenly split for
the first time in 120 years, after a
recount in the last undecided election
gave the Democrats a narrow victory in
Washington state.
It means that whoever wins the US
presidency will be searching for the
middle ground in key areas, as few
analysts believe that the administration
will have a mandate - or the legislative
numbers - for sweeping change.
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End of silverfoxesclub-digest V1 #64
|
I realize that most of you don't give a shit what happens in
Namibia and probably don't even know where it is. It is on
the western edge of southern Africa, bordered on three
sides by South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and
Angola, and on its entire western coast by the South Atlantic
Ocean. That didn't help much, did it? Suffice it to say that
it's a strip of land way down there near the bottom of the
globe.