IF the boy scouts of america discriminates?

There was a comment on one of the threads about BSA's former program director and alleged purveyor of child porn Douglas S. Smith that stated: If the BSA discriminates, it should not get public funds.  I originally composed this as a response to the comment, then decided to diary this instead.

here is a site that documents several cases of BSA discrimination.  

(more below the fold)

The BSA prohibits little children from participating in cub scouts if they don't profess a belief in God.  Mark Welsh was 6 years old when his dad took him to a cub scout meeting, asked for alternate language to the Declaration of Religious Principle, and was told "People like you" can't join the BSA.  

The Randall twins were 9 years old when they were kicked out of cub scouts because they publicly professed atheism (they later were permitted to continue in BSA under court order, a court order that would be very unlikely to be found in their favor today.)

There is no question that they engage in religious discrimination.  That is a core value of the BSA per their legal briefs and their legal issues website.   So is the discrimination against gays.  I am unsure which thing I find more repugnant, the heavy-handed tactics to make little children religiously correct or the discrimination against gays.

The BSA wants to discriminate, get public funds, and also prohibit other groups from using the word "scout" in its name.  BSA is a brand, like McDonalds or Burger King.  What would be helpful I think is for people to understand that and to insist to their congresscritters that scouting be opened to other groups, since there is an obscure law on the books that grants the BSA a monopoly on the word "scout" by fiat.  That would ease a lot of problems.  BSA is concerned about people who want them to include people that they don't want to include. Perhaps if the monopoly were broken, those people who are currently excluded would quit trying to join the BSA.

Here are links to the recent BSA stories:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/29/15935/8414

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/29/131233/388

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/29/18522/0183

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/29/17025/4539