Cradle Rock

The Boy Scouts should do the right thing.

by Rob Lehmann

Not long ago while tooling around on my bike, I stopped in at the Cradle of Liberty Council’s Boy Scout headquarters to congratulate the powers that be on their stance to desist discrimination against gays in Scouting. Notwithstanding that the position had been largely prompted by the withdrawal of massive funding by both the Pew Charitable Trusts and the United Way, still, I felt the move was progressive, even heroic. My comments were accepted graciously.

The Bruce S. Marks Scouting Resource Center is quite a beautiful beaux arts building just off the Parkway. Built in 1928 on land donated by the city, it was the first building constructed for Scouting. Behind the impressive two-story stone cross-hall is an equally lovely hall dressed in dark wooden paneling. In the place of honor is a painting depicting the following scene: A forest at nighttime. Light cast by a campfire. Behind an elevated podium stand a pair of jolly, older gentlemen, all mustachioed and rubicund. Before them stands a Boy Scout in full uniform at attention while a medal is being pinned to his breast by (presumably) another Scout who is dressed in only a loincloth and a feathered headdress. It is insanely homoerotic.

I am a gay man. When I was 12 my father died. No significant paternal role model entered my life after that time and finally, in my 30s, I learned such traditional masculine skills as I possess (construction, tinkering with my car) from a lesbian friend. In between there was the Boy Scouts.

Scouting was a good experience for me. At 16, I got my driver's license and never looked back. But in those awkward years of early adolescence, the fraternal inclusiveness of scouting affirmed that, though I had lost my father, I had not completely lost my place in masculine society. Our scoutmaster had been a Marine drill sergeant and we spent a lot of time in the church parking lot doing close-order formation drill work for the parades in which we'd occasionally march.

By now we all know about the Cradle of Liberty Council's shameful repudiation of its enlightened position. In reaction to gay Scout Greg Lattera's doing what he had been taught in Scouting: "to show leadership," his coming out as a gay man and a Scout occasioned his expulsion from the Cradle of Liberty Scouts, which promptly rescinded its new policy. It was the council that knuckled under, ate dirt and showed dishonorable cowardice, not leadership, in the face of discord from the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which threatened to revoke the Cradle of Liberty's charter.

Well, what to do?

As with Pew and the United Way, the city of Philadelphia has a nondiscriminatory policy towards sexual orientation. This may be the linchpin. Much to his credit, Mayor John Street has instructed the City Law Department to investigate whether the land on which the Marks Scouting Resource Center sits might be retrieved by the city. City Council members Frank DiCicco and Darrell Clarke (in whose district the property is situated) have declared support for such efforts and DiCicco has stated that a resolution could be introduced when City Council resumes session in September.

Of less ambiguous legal status is the Boy Scout house in Fairmont Park. Various nonprofit organizations lease buildings in the park from the Fairmont Park Commission for nominal or token amounts in exchange for maintaining the properties. These organizations range from the Wellness Center, which provides services to cancer patients and their families, to the Friends of RittenhouseTown, which operates the village as an educational historical site displaying early American papermaking and lifestyle. The Boy Scout house, just off Henry Avenue near the Wissahickon, is used as a gathering place for meetings and Scouting expeditions into the surrounding forest. Leases for the park properties are drawn annually and renewed by rote.

While the city's Law Department explores the status of the headquarters at 22nd and Winter streets, the revocation of a park lease should a simple thing to accomplish in a relatively short time. Rather than allow this matter to bog down in a lengthy legal procedure until it becomes a forgotten matter, it is urgent that the city strike an important stance now to make clear its intolerance for intolerance. Ironically, just as the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation is spending thousands of dollars promoting Philadelphia as a destination for gay travelers, the greater likelihood is that the city's national reputation will exist as a place of regressive bigotry. Right-mindedness and high-mindedness, given hypocritical lip service by the Cradle of Liberty Council and the National Council of the Boy Scouts, is now the responsibility of Mayor Street and the city of Philadelphia.

When not troubled with gainful employment, Mr. Lehmann is a flaneur. If you would like to respond to this Slant or have one of your own (850 words), contact Howard Altman, City Paper editor in chief, 123 Chestnut St., third floor, Phila., PA 19106 or e-mail altman@citypaper.net.