Repeal the "Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act" End U.S. Government Supported Discrimination!

We ask congress to repeal the ill-conceived "Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act". This act can force our K-12 public school systems, through coercive requirements, to provide access to: Updated - "Old Language"- (one of the most discriminatory groups left within the United States), "New Language"- (a group that continues to discriminate and allow chapters within its organization to continue to discriminate; important improvement has been made; still a way to go yet) under definitions or circumstances that we believe are far too generous, and intellectually unsound, especially when one considers the educational mission of our K-12 public school system and the documented discriminatory harms towards the LGBT student body/community that continue to occur. The areas in which the Boy Scouts of America discriminate, updated 5/24/13, is in their membership/participation criteria for Scout leadership, i.e. sexual orientation/religious affiliation/beliefs and Scout membership/participation, i.e. Religious affiliation/beliefs. Updated 8/19/15 - they remain an unacceptably discriminatory organization as they continue to allow individual chapters to discriminate based upon issues of sexual orientation, in regards to leadership positions. The BSA also continues to discriminate related to exclusionary membership policies based upon a person's religious orientation.

This act provides material support to a group that embraces discriminatory processes not in keeping with the higher standards of our public educational systems, and has been, and may continue to be, a contributor to higher drop-out rates, harassment and unacceptable levels of discriminatory cultural bias in our K-12 Public Schools.

We believe our K-12 Public School campuses should be discrimination-free zones. Repealing the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act would give these school districts back the tools they gained during the civil rights era, tools they lost after the passage of this "Act"... Tools they were using effectively right up to the point the government took these tools away... Tools used in a manner supported by decades of legal/supreme court decisions... Legal precedent that was thrown out into the street with the passage of this "Act"... Legal precedent that must be restored to their former prominence. Our Public Schools must be places of education, not propagandization.

We find that this ongoing hypocrisy related to membership/leadership participation/selection is unhealthy and its intellectually dishonest basis, in our opinion, continues to undermine the very foundations of Scouting.