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Cradle of Liberty Scout Council May Lose UW Funding
By DAVID B. CARUSO
Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA - One big charity withdrew a six-figure pledge to a Boy Scout council after it lost a battle to
admit homosexuals, and the local United Way is considering following suit.
The United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania said Wednesday that it may yank its annual funding of the Cradle of Liberty Council, the nation's
third-largest Boy Scout chapter, because of its policy of ousting openly gay scouts and troop leaders.
The charity gives the Philadelphia-based council, which has 87,000 scouts in the city and its suburbs, about $400,000 a year.
The warning comes just weeks after Cradle of Liberty announced that it was doing away with its policy of refusing to admit openly gay members or leaders — then abruptly reversed itself after national Boy Scout officials
threatened to revoke the group's charter.
The quick reversal surprised a number of groups that had worked for months with local scout leaders to craft the new membership policy, which would have barred discrimination on the
basis of sexual orientation. The council drew more fire by expelling an 18-year-old scout, Greg Lattera, for telling reporters he was gay during a news conference.
Pew Charitable Trusts, which had pledged $100,000 to the council,
withdrew its offer because the charity seeks to work with organizations "that share our values and ideals of inclusiveness and tolerance," said the charity's spokeswoman, Barbara Beck.
Pew was formerly a regular
contributor to the scouts, but ended its 50 years of patronage in 2001 because of the exclusion of gays.
The council's executive director, William T. Dwyer III, did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday.
United
Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania spokeswoman Judith Williams said the group's trustees voted Wednesday to form a study committee to examine the scouts' policies and determine whether its grants will stop.
The United Way
might still decide to go ahead and make the grant, Williams said, because its money goes entirely to a school-based "Learning for Life" program that is run by the scouts but doesn't require membership and doesn't exclude
homosexuals.
United Way offices have already withdrawn funding from at least 50 scout councils nationwide.
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