Several of the largest employers in Seattle—such as Boeing,
Alaska Airlines, and Microsoft—are 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 28—which
prominently featured former Washington governor Gary Locke and Attorney
General Rob McKenna on the event’s program—Seattle’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
scoutmaster—who had been kicked out of the
organization—challenged 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 Fargo—and 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 chapter—Microsoft, 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 senate—losing by one vote—Microsoft 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
Locke—a former Eagle Scout himself—will 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.
