[310] in peace2
Re: Supreme Court Upholds Discrimination Against Gays
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Gregory D Dennis)
Sun Jul 2 04:07:16 2000
Message-Id: <4.3.1.2.20000702034259.00aa81e0@po9.mit.edu>
Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2000 04:05:19 -0400
To: peace-list@mit.edu, bostonrnr@egroups.com
From: Gregory D Dennis <gdennis@MIT.EDU>
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To say "the Supreme Court is upholding discrimination against gays" is
terribly misleading. Nothing in this decision says anything about the
Supreme Court's attitude towards or against discrimination. What they are
upholding in this case is the right of a private organization's, i.e. a
"club", to select it's own members using any criteria it chooses. The
NAACP, for instance, does not allow any white members -- and they should
have this right, for they are a completely private organization. They
receive no subsidies from the government and do not operate on any
government-owned property. What was being decided in this Boy Scout case is
whether or not the BSA is a private organization or a public accommodation,
not whether or not the Supreme Court agrees with Discrimination against
Gays. That having been said, I would contend that they are not a private
club, because they (1) receive subsidies from the federal government and
(2) often operate from places of public accommodation like churches and
synagogues. If the BSA wants to discriminate when selecting it's own
members, then they must stop taking government money and they should rent
out private function halls for their meetings. But again, the supreme court
did not make a decision as to the morality of anti-gay discrimination, they
made a decision as to what constitutes a private organization.
Greg
--------------------------------
Gregory D Dennis (617) 267-2199
Phi Sigma Kappa gdennis@mit.edu
487 Commonwealth Ave
Boston, MA 02215
