Your contribution to the effort to end the discrimination

Adding your voice to the effort to end the discrimination is important. No voice is too small and your voice adds to the overall effort. If you want to recommend another action we can take which is not listed below, e-mail the details to nap[at]purespeed[dot]com.

• Write the National School Boards Association asking it to warn public school's that sponsorship of and recruiting for Cub Scout dens and Boy Scout troops may violate non-discrimination law:
  National School Boards Association
  Dr. Anne L. Bryant
  1680 Duke St.
  Alexandria VA 22314
• If your public school's parent teacher organization/association is sponsoring or aiding BSA, complain! You can also write to the National Parents Teachers Association :
  National Congress of Parents & Teachers
  Lois Jean White, director
  330 N Wabash Ave, Suite 2100
  Chicago IL 60611.
• Find out if any local BSA units, other then Learning for Life units (including Explorers), are chartered to government institutions. Make sure that those chartering organizations are aware that BSA has an official national policy of denying membership on the basis of refusing to express theistic self-belief and that this policy could result in the sponsoring organization becoming the target of a lawsuit based on applicable federal, state or local non-discrimination law.
• Participate in other youth groups instead of the Boy Scouts. Groups worthy of consideration include the Police Athletic League , Jane Goodall Institute's Root and Shoots , Youthscouts , 4-H Clubs , YMCA , The Mountaineers , Star Scouting America , Spiral Scouts , Pagan Unitarian Universalist Earth Scouts , Camp Quest a secular humanist camp, Odyssey of the Mind , and some Jewish Community Centers among others. Campfire Girls and Boys says they "require no oath or participation in rituals that may create barriers to inclusiveness." The Boys and Girls Clubs of America requires each child to sign a statement certifying that re believes that there is a god as a condition of membership
• If you belong to a unit and decide not to leave then:
  • Amend the local charter by adding a non-discrimination clause and send a copy of that version to the Boy Scouts of America and the local media. The BSA has repeatedly refused to renew the charter of Scout Packs, Troops, and Crews because a diversity statement was included with the renewals application. For example, in July 2000, six Cub Scout packs sponsored by a PTA in Oak Park, IL were expelled from BSA for including a non-discrimination statement with their re-certification application. The Venture Crew 488 in Sebastopol CA was ejected from BSA by the Redwood Council in August 2003 because their charter renewal application also included an attached non-discrimination statement. Membership applications are processed by BSA national office where some of the applications can be refused against the unit's expressed preference. Since BSA is a private organization such unilateral non-discrimination statements by individual units, although well-intentioned, are probably unenforceable and therefore appear to have no legal significance (in the judgement of the author of this website who is not a lawyer).
  • Publicly create programs for your Boy Scout troops/Cub Scout packs to combat the message sent by the Boy Scouts of America. Membership in the Boy Scouts of America can be a strong formative experience for boys, but it is up to us to turn that experience into one in keeping with our own values. Develop programming within the framework of Boy Scout lessons, in order to teach the boys involved our objection to any kind of prejudice and discrimination in general, and our belief in the evils of all forms of creed based discrimination.
• Adult men can publicly renounce Boy Scout rank and/or membership.
• Withdraw financial support of the Boy Scouts of America. Please note that while Learning for Life division programs do not discriminate, dues and fees paid to Learning for Life programs often go to a BSA Council that may commingle the money with Scouting division program money.
• Request copies from your local BSA Council of their IRS form 990 for the most recent past three years. The most recent form 990 can sometime be obtained online from Guidestar's Charity Search. Some BSA Councils receive government grants.
• If your BSA Council received government grants or charters units to government institutions then
  • write to your state's District Attorney or Attorney General and send carbon copies to the BSA Council.
  • Contact your state or local civil rights agency.
  • Contact your local ACLU chapter.
  • If the chartered organization is a federal agency make a complaint with the United States Commission on Civil Rights at 1-800-552-6843 or (202) 376-8513 .
  • Attend local public meetings of government(s) that sponsor BSA units and tell the elected government officials they should divest their unit charters to avoid lawsuits.
• Contact your state's judicial conduct commission and ask them to enforce judicial conduct rules that prohibit judges from bieng members of organizations such as Boy Scouts of American that practice invidious discrimination on the basis of religious creed.
• Write personal letters, make phone calls, or even visits to local, regional, or national Boy Scout offices and make a strong statement showing commitment to the Boy Scouts, while at the same time explaining deep disappointment with the choices they have made and continue to make.
• Write a polite protest letter addressed to: Roy L. Williams, Chief Scout Executive, or Milton H. Ward, national president, Boy Scouts of America, PO Box 152079, Irving TX 75015-2079.
• Ask the National Charities Information Bureau to declare BSA to be in violation of their Pluralism and Diversity standard. Address your letter to: National Charities Information Bureau
  19 Union Square West
  New York, NY 10003
• "United Way volunteers ensure that every group receiving unallocated funds is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charity governed by volunteers; and that it ... maintains a policy of non-discrimination." Basic Facts About United Way. Unallocated funds are the funds from donations which did not designated a specific charity as the recipient. Find out if your local United Way funds a BSA Council. If so, then
  • Write a letter to your local United Way explaining the problem and send carbon copies to your state's District Attorney or Attorney General and to the national United Way of America. Ask that it follow the lead of more progressive affiliates and discontinue its support of BSA because BSA's discrimination violates United Way eligibility criteria. Address your carbon copy to:
    UNITED WAY OF AMERICA
    Ms. Betty Stanley Beene, President
    701 NORTH FAIRFAX ST
    ALEXANDRIA VA 22314-2045 Sample letter to local United Way.
  • Find out when the volunteer UW board meets and attend the meeting. Ask the UW board to drop unallocated funding for the BSA Council unless the BSA Council explicitly agrees to accommodate non-believers.
• "Discrimination for or against any individual or group on account of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap, or political affiliation is prohibited in all aspects of the management and execution of the CFC [Combined Federal Campaign]" CFC Regulation 950.110, Prohibited Discrimination. Find out if your local BSA Council receives funds from the CFC. If so, then
  • Contact your local Principal Combined Fund Organization (PCFO) and ask them for the names and address of the Local Federal Coordinating Committee (LFCC) members. Then write to the LFCC members explaining the problem and send carbon copies to your state's District Attorney or Attorney General.
• Write a short letter to the American Library Association (ALA) stating your support for the ALA ending it's relationship with the BSA because the BSA refuses to accommodate atheists in it's program. ALA currently provides the BSA recommended reading lists for BSA merit badges.
  Address your letter to: ALA
  50 E HURON ST
  CHICAGO IL 60611/
• Work on a local, regional and national level to build coalitions with other groups concerned about this issue. Use these coalitions as another voice through which to speak to the Boy Scouts. The Lambda Legal Defense Fund, which defends the civil rights of gay citizens, is compiling a list of currently existing coalitions on the local level. In addition, Scouting for All , an organization made up mainly of troop leaders, scouts, and scouting parents with the ultimate goal of getting the BSA to rescind its discriminatory policy, is currently expanding its Alliance program to continue to address this issue.