Several of the largest employers in Seattleâsuch as Boeing, Alaska Airlines, and Microsoftâare giving thousands of dollars of support to an antigay group. While the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) aren't as loud about their antigay stance as Fred Phelps or Ken Hutcherson, the group's message isn't all that different.
"Boy Scouts believe that homosexual conduct is not compatible with the aims and purposes of Scouting," says one BSA website, bsalegal.org. "[Homosexuals do] not present a desirable role model for the youth in the Scouting program"
At a BSA "Scouting Breakfast" fundraiser on February 28âwhich prominently featured former Washington governor Gary Locke and Attorney General Rob McKenna on the event's programâSeattle's business heavyweights sat around tables in the convention center, scarfing down bacon and eggs while talking about community service, character, integrity, and diversity. The BSA's antigay stance never came up.
The Scouts' antigay stance isn't anything new. For several decades, the BSA has taken a stance against allowing "known or avowed" homosexuals to be scouts or scoutmasters in the organization, because, they say, "homosexual conduct is inconsistent with the traditional values espoused in the Scout Oath... and that an avowed homosexual cannot serve as a role model."
In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the BSA after a gay scoutmasterâwho had been kicked out of the organizationâchallenged the Scouts' antigay stance in court. The Court ruled the Scouts are a private organization, and are entitled to control their membership. Since the Supreme Court's ruling, the BSA has lost support from a number of chapters of the United Way, Levi-Strauss, and Wells Fargoâand lost access to municipal facilities in New York, Connecticut, Philadelphia, and California. Director Steven Spielberg, a former Boy Scout, also resigned from his position on the BSA's board in protest of the organization's antigay stance.
The Stranger called a number of companies listed on the BSA's "Scouting Breakfast" brochure as major contributors to the local BSA chapterâMicrosoft, Alaska Airlines, Boeing, and the Perkins Coie law firm, the chief counsel for Democrat Barack Obama's election campaign.
Boeing spokeswoman Sue Bradley says her company donates to BSA to support "programming and infrastructure," and claims the programs they give to aren't discriminatory. "We don't get into any questions of policy," she says. "We leave that to the Boy Scouts."
Perkins Coie say their contributions are made by individual attorneys, rather than the company. But according to a staff member at their Seattle office, the firm has written at least one check to the BSA. The other companies did not return our calls.
Microsoft, who did not host a table at the BSA's breakfast but is listed as a major contributor to the organization, has already flip-flopped several times on its gay-rights stance in the last few years. In 2005, Microsoft backed off its support of and took a "neutral stance" on an antidiscrimination bill, after Pastor Ken Hutcherson pressured the company ["Microsoft Caves on Gay Rights," Sandeep Kaushik, April 21, 2005]. Eight months later, after the bill died in the state senateâlosing by one voteâMicrosoft flipped again and came out in support of legislation to protect gay employees in the workplace. Microsoft's internal policies protect employees from discrimination based on their sexual orientation, and in 2008 the company received a rating of 100 percent from the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT lobby group that annually evaluates major corporations on equality in the workplace.
The Human Rights Campaign also gave Boeing a 100 percent rating in 2008, while Alaska Airlines received a 95 percent rating and Perkins Coie received 85 percent.
Despite the BSA's continued antigay stance, former governor Lockeâa former Eagle Scout himselfâwill be hosting an upcoming BSA golf event with former governor Dan Evans. It's surprising Locke would position himself as the face of an organization like the BSA. After all, Locke vetoed a state ban on gay marriage in 1998. Locke did not return calls for comment about his connection with the BSA. 
