Two Articles in this file: 1. BAN ON GAYS COSTS SCOUTS DONATIONS FROM 2 BANKS--From the "DAILY NEWS," A California Newspaper Serving the San Fernando Valley and Neighboring Valleys. 2. BANKS CUT CORPORATE DONATIONS TO SCOUTS POLICY OF EXCLUDING HOMOSEXUALS IS CITED, From the Seattle Times ---------------------------------- CUT HERE ---------------------------------- BAN ON GAYS COSTS SCOUTS DONATIONS FROM 2 BANKS Sunday, May 31, 1992. Part NEWS, Page 15, the Daily News. Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO--Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank will no longer donate funds to the Boy Scouts because of the youth group's ban against homosexuals, according to a published report. "Their policy basically conflicts with our long-standing nondiscrimination policy both at the corporate contributions level and as an employer," Wells Fargo spokeswoman Kim Kellogg told the San Francisco Examiner in a story published in Saturday's editions. Similar cutoffs were made earlier by the Bay Area United Way and Levi Strauss & Company. The banks' moves were labeled "very confusing" by Kenneth Allen, spokesman for the Bay Area Boy Scouts Council. He said the Girl Scouts have gone to court three times to exclude boys and noted that BankAmerica continues to support that organization. Kellogg said Wells Fargo would honor present pledges to local scout councils, including one to the Orange County Boy Scouts on which $25,000 is due in 1993 and 1994. However, no new pledges will be made unless the Boy Scouts ;changes the policy, she said. BankAmerica gives up to $20,000 a year to scouting organizations. "Regrettably, our nondiscrimination policy precludes us from continuing our financial support of the organization due to its decision to bar scouts and scout leaders based on sexual preference, rather ;than personal conduct," it said. "Out values and principles are not up for sale," Buford Hill, Western regional director for the Scouts said earlier when United Way cut funding. "It is unthinkable to me that in a time when worries about drugs, crime, education, youth and gangs are at an all-time high, some would instead direct their efforts at attacking an organization that has been a bulwark for values and the family." ---------------------------------- CUT HERE ---------------------------------- BANKS CUT CORPORATE DONATIONS TO SCOUTS POLICY OF EXCLUDING HOMOSEXUALS IS CITED Seattle Times (SE) - Friday July 10, 1992 By: CAROL M. OSTROM Edition: FINAL Section: NEWS Page: A1 Word Count: 1,210 TEXT: Just a month ago, Seafirst President Luke Helms was chairing a benefit auction for the Boy Scouts, helping sell some $600,000 worth of donated goodies. But his bank, owned by BankAmerica Corp., will no longer support the Boy Scouts through corporate gifts. The Scouts' policy of excluding boys and leaders on the basis of their sexual orientation conflicts with the non-discrimination policies at Seafirst and BankAmerica. Such policies, in force in a number of corporations and governmental entities, mean trouble for the Boy Scouts, nationally and locally. The organization already has been excluded from Seattle's Combined Charities campaign. Barring a change of heart on the part of the Scouts, the group also will be excluded from King County's campaign in the fall. In addition, First Interstate Bank, following a new decision at corporate headquarters in Los Angeles, will no longer give money directly to the Scouts. The issue first blew up in a big way in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Boy Scouts group there had to declare its intentions, and the repercussions from that unequivocal statement headed out across the country. The United Way of the Bay Area, which serves five counties with a fund-raising campaign of $58 million last year, recently cut the Scouts from its list of agencies receiving general-fund allocations. Bank of America (also a subsidiary of San Francisco-based BankAmerica), Wells Fargo Bank and Levi Strauss & Co. also have cut off contributions, triggering a boycott campaign by Scout supporters against the banks. In Seattle, the controversy is haunting a nervous United Way, still smarting from a 1988 fund-raising campaign crippled by a controversy over funding of Planned Parenthood. "We're not going to move quickly to take sides," said Clydean Zuckerman, vice president for marketing at United Way of King County. "It's legally complex and very divisive." In Seattle, Dean Lollar, executive for the Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts of America, strongly protests Seafirst's decision. "The Boy Scouts of America feels it's inappropriate for a corporation to put this kind of pressure on a private membership organization," Lollar said, "and we're not going to give in and change our standards and turn our backs on mainstream America, on families." "We believe that non-discrimination is the right thing to do," countered Seafirst spokeswoman Betty Lattie. "There's a very strong tradition in both of these banks (Seafirst and Bank of America) that we do not exclude people." For many involved in the decisions, there were mixed feelings. "I think the Scouts do good work," said Kirk Robbins, chairman of the eligibility subcommittee for the county's Employees Combined Charitable Campaign. "I wish they would make their services available to everyone." Like Seafirst, the city and county governments have had a non-discrimination policy for a long time. But until recently, the issue had been a non-issue. TAKING THEM TO COURT In the Bay Area, the conflict between non-discrimination policies and Boy Scout policies came to the surface after a gay man, rejected as a troop leader, took his case to court in Los Angeles. United Way of the Bay Area took the lead on the issue. It wrestled with the issue for about 10 months, and after the Boy Scouts rejected any possibility they might soften or change its stance, United Way dropped the six local Boy Scout chapters from its general allocation. As "non-funded members," the Scouts can continue to receive from individual givers who designate that their donations go to them, said John Stafford, vice president for public affairs for the Bay Area United Way. Although the 24-member task force that studied the issue for six months voted unanimously to oust the Scouts, it was with some reluctance, Stafford said. "In principle and in fact, we support the Boy Scout program. We think they do great work with kids. . . . It's not their program that we have a problem with. It's their attitude about who should be involved in it." What makes the issue "such a big deal," Stafford said, is that the Scouts "have such a huge influence on the shaping of moral outlook of American youth." One question raised in the San Francisco discussion went something like this: "Why can't the Boy Scouts be more like the Girl Scouts?" The Girl Scouts - including both the local Totem Scout Council and the national Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. - say they respect the beliefs of each member regarding sexuality and do not "investigate or intrude into personal matters." Unlike the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts do not have policies that focus on individual sexual orientation, but rather on "appropriate conduct" of employees and members. They do not condone or permit "sexual displays of any sort" by members, according to both national and local policies. "It just makes so much sense," said Brenda Berg, assistant executive director of the Totem Girl Scouts. Lollar said the Boy Scouts' policy stems from the "expectations from the people we serve," meaning families. "It's really an issue about leadership," he said, not about which children are allowed in. "On the realistic side, this is not an issue for youth members. It doesn't become an issue." So is he saying that homosexuals can't be good leaders? "We're saying they're not the proper role models that our membership expects," he said. "This is really not a civil-rights issue," he said. "We have never tried to force our values on anyone else. In fact, we'll stand up for their right to have their own beliefs. But we ask that we be given the same right." United Way of King County, which has its own non-discrimination policy prohibiting funding of organizations that discriminate on the basis of sex or sexual orientation, among other things, admits it has a problem. 'A DIFFICULT ISSUE' It funds shelters for abused women, for example, Zuckerman noted. Those shelters don't take men. In other parts of the country, the Boy Scouts have been sued for refusing to take girls or atheists. "It's a difficult issue," Zuckerman said. "It's hard to envision a win-win (situation), but we're going to do our best." While the decision by Seafirst cuts off direct corporate contributions, the bank still will give a corporate gift to United Way. United Way is free to distribute it to its member agencies. Since the Boy Scouts are still a member agency, and in fact last year were the 13th-ranked recipient of United Way funds in King County (at $612,228), they still will get a substantial chunk of change from Seafirst, which gave about $1.14 million to United Way agencies last year. In addition, individual donors still can donate to the Boy Scouts through the employee campaign. Seafirst spokeswoman Lattie said Helms, who is on the board of the Chief Seattle Council, would likely continue to volunteer for the Scouts. Helms declined comment. Right now, it's not the money but the principle that seems to be at stake, Lollar said. "We're going to survive," he said. "We're not going to let this community down at all." CAPTION: PHOTO 1) MIKE SIEGEL / SEATTLE TIMES: DEAN LOLLAR IS SCOUT EXECUTIVE OF THE CHIEF SEATTLE COUNCIL OF THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA. 2) LUKE HELMS Copyright 1992 The Seattle Times DESCRIPTORS: CLUBS AND SOCIETIES; DISCRIMINATION; HOMOSEXUALITY; BANKS AND BANKING; PHILANTHROPY; GRANTS (CORPORATE AND; FOUNDATION); TEXT OF STATEMENT ? >From NPR: Seafirst has pulled its $$$ out of the Boy Scouts for discriminating against gays and atheists. A Seafirst spokesperson said that they could not in good conscience fund an organization that discriminates against the same people that Seafirst's own nondiscrimination policy protects.