World News Korner

Walt Disney World cuts ties with Boy Scouts over ban on LGBTQ troop leaders and volunteers. Ouch, that's gotta hurt!

Courtesy of Salon:

Walt Disney World has ended its financial support of the Boy Scouts of America over its ban on openly-LGBTQ troop leaders and volunteers.

The company had previously supported the organization through an employee grant matching program; Walt Disney World would make donations to the charitable organizations where employees volunteered their time, including the Boy Scouts.

The Central Florida Council’s board president alerted troop parents of the change in a recent letter:

"We recognize that many Scout Units have received financial support over the last several years from this [Walt Disney matching] grant opportunity and are sad to see it go. The National BSA Council has reached out to WDW to try to resolve the situation, however, according to WDW, their views do not currently align with the BSA and they are choosing to discontinue this level of support. We will continue to keep an open line of communication with them, but at this time, are unable to reverse their decision."

As Josh Israel at ThinkProgress notes, the Walt Disney Company’s corporate standards prohibit “any form of harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identification, national origin, age, marital status, covered veteran status, disability, pregnancy or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.”

Wow! I cannot imagine that the Boy Scouts can continue to stand up against this kind of pressure from organizations as powerful as Walt Disney World.

And besides if the Scouts re going to allow LGBTQ kids into the program, shouldn't they also have role models there that the boys can relate to?

Makes sense to me, unless of course the BSA is still being guided by the belief that homosexuality and pedophilia are connected in some way. Which it is not.

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