SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Charles Burress, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, August 8, 2001
Berkeley's mayor was under siege and a gay councilman was labeled everything
from a hero to an idiot yesterday in a new uproar over the city's stumbling
effort to oppose the Boy Scouts' ban on homosexual leaders.
Mayor Shirley Dean was assailed by unfriendly radio talk shows and angry
residents after a Chronicle story about her decision to cancel a meeting
Monday at City Hall with visiting Scouts from Japan.
Kriss Worthington, an openly gay member of the Berkeley City Council whose
objections led to Dean's decision to keep the Scouts out of City Hall, said he
received "very emotional" calls from people on both sides. Anti-Worthington
epithets sent to The Chronicle from around the country ranged from "idiot" to
the unprintable.
A spokesman for the Japanese government called the incident "unfortunate."
Dean had been scheduled to meet with 38 Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts from
Berkeley's sister city in Japan, Sakai. Following a tradition of many years,
the ceremonial highlight of their weeklong visit to the United States was to
have been the presentation to her of a proclamation from the Sakai mayor at
City Hall Monday morning.
Japanese Scouts have no policy on homosexuals, but because they would have
been accompanied by Berkeley-area Boy Scouts, who are acting as hosts,
Worthington objected. He said the city should not support an organization that
discriminates.
A city law bans subsidies to groups that discriminate on the basis of sexual
orientation, but the city attorney said Monday's event would not have violated
that policy.
Dean said she acted to spare the Scouts embarrassment and possible protests.
The meeting was rescheduled for Friday at an undisclosed location outside the
city.
"The cancellation was unfortunate," said Masaya Sagawa, a spokesman for the
Japanese Consulate in San Francisco, "but I understand this is really a
sensitive issue for American Boy Scouts."
The chairman of the Berkeley Boy Scout hosting committee, Kevin Takei, said
the Japanese visitors were not told why they were barred from City Hall, only
that the mayor had to cancel the meeting.
Yesterday's flurry of phone calls, e-mails and letters to the editor included
those from frustrated Scout parents and leaders in Berkeley who said city
political leaders should not attack the Berkeley Scouts, who routinely help
clean and restore parks and school yards, but should cooperate with the local
Scouts who oppose the national policy.
"We are not the problem," said Ellen Georgi, a Cub Scout leader and parent of
three Scouts. "Living in Berkeley, we have our liberal ideals and we get
slapped in the face wherever we go."
They're treated like pariahs by their own city and school district and as
traitors outside the city, she said. At last week's national scouting
Jamboree, some Utah Scouts called them "homo lovers," she said.
Her Pack 30 risked its standing last year by issuing a statement opposing the
national policy.
Her son Ryan, an Eagle Scout entering the University of California at
Berkeley, recently completed a garden project at a Berkeley public school that
won third place in a national contest, but he received no local recognition,
not even a thanks from the principal, Georgi said.
"Why not glorify what Berkeley Scouts are doing instead of vilifying them?"
complained Councilwoman Betty Olds, who opposes both the national Scout policy
and the complaint raised by Worthington.
But Mark Chekal, former chairman of the Berkeley Community Health Commission,
praised Worthington as a "hero," saying that anti-gay policies by the Boy
Scouts and other influential organizations "are a large part of the problem
that leads to teen gay and lesbian suicides."
Councilwoman Dona Spring said Berkeley Scouts should secede from the Boy
Scouts of America and form an independent organization. She said Dean should
have refused to meet with the Scouts in her official capacity.
Several communities across the country have banned Boy Scouts from regular use
of public facilities, but Berkeley leaders were divided yesterday over whether
they should go further and ban some visits to public property.
Spring said the Berkeley ban on subsidies to groups that discriminate should
be expanded to include receptions involving city officials.
Worthington said he does not favor a ban on Boy Scouts merely being present on
city property, but he said serving refreshments to them or accepting a
proclamation from them might violate city policy or at least warrant turning
the event into "an educational exercise" on discrimination.
A number of scouting groups around the country have called for the policy on
gays to be changed, but they are opposed by a formidable movement of more
conservative groups inside and outside the organization.
"It's one of those things where people feel very strongly on one side or the
other," Worthington said.
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