Local Mormons condemn group’s stance on gays

Stacy J. Willis

Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2001 | 11:35 a.m.

A national human rights organization that includes local representatives of the Mormon Church issued a statement condemning the Boy Scouts of America's anti-gay policy last week.

The statement has caused members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- which strongly supports the Scouts and disapproves of homosexuality -- to consider pulling out of the 30-year-old local chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice.

The NCCJ statement says the Boy Scouts are sending a "harmful message" by not allowing gays to participate in their organization. "By not admitting and dismissing gays from their organization, the Boy Scouts is not respecting or treating others in a dignified manner, rather, promoting exclusion and discrimination," the statement, issued from the NCCJ's Washington D.C. office, says.

"NCCJ believes that the Boy Scouts should not receive further support from the government until they change their policies towards gays, and that the millions of alumni and current members of the Boy Scouts need to stand up and speak out against their organization's stance on gays," the statement says.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in June that the Boy Scouts' heterosexuals-only policy was constitutional because it is a private organization.

The Boy Scouts of America, founded in 1908, has 4.8 million members between the ages of 8 and 20. Many of its troops are sponsored by churches and several of its creeds emphasize a duty to God.

The NCCJ, formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews, is a 70-year-old, non-profit organization dedicated to "fighting racism, bigotry and bias" and has more than 65 chapters nationwide.

Members of the NCCJ's southern Nevada regional executive committee and board of directors include County Commissioner Dario Herrera, Sheriff Jerry Keller and representatives of a faiths ranging from Muslim to Methodist.

Mormon representative Linda Rawson was recently appointed to the Southern Nevada NCCJ's executive committee.

"The NCCJ has done good work over the years, but we disagree with the NCCJ statement," William Stoddard, spokesman for the Mormon Church, said. "We strongly support the Boy Scouts of America and their stance on the issue of gays ... The church sponsors dozens of troops in Las Vegas, as it does nationwide."

Boulder Dam Area Boy Scouts had no comment about NCCJ's statement.

But Stoddard said that he, Rawson and other LDS members have been discussing withdrawing from the NCCJ's Interfaith Committee and forming another interfaith group because of their differing opinions about the morality of homosexuality.

"Our hope has been that NCCJ would not take such a strong approach on this issue," Stoddard said. "But this recent statement is problematic. I hope that we are going to be able to work through it, but I don't know if we will. We're going to have to make some hard decisions." Local NCCJ executive director Lee Plotkin, a well-known gay activist who was hired by the NCCJ in September, said the organization's statement "is not outside the scope of our anti-discrimination mission."

"I believe I have had some extremely productive dialogue on this issue with our Mormon members, and I hope that continues," Plotkin said. "And I have invited the Boy Scouts to attend our Camp Anytown program, where we teach about acceptance and non-discrimination.

"As an organization, we are hoping to have an influence on the gays-in-the-Boy-Scouts issue," Plotkin said. "We are hoping that the United Way will see the Boy Scouts' discrimination for what it is."

The United Way partially funds both th local NCCJ and the Boulder Dam Area Boy Scouts. Nationwide, some United Way branches have withdrawn funding from the Boy Scouts of America in objection to the anti-gay policy, but as of yet, the United Way of Southern Nevada has not withdrawn funding.

United Way dollars account for 14 percent of the local Boy Scout budget. The United Way also has given to the NCCJ, Plotkin said, including money earmarked to fund a June NCCJ anti-hate conference that included a workshop about sexual orientation discrimination.

The growing divide between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and NCCJ leadership began last fall, when the Reno NCCJ chapter opposed a statewide ballot question that ensured gay marriage would not be state-sanctioned.

Ballot Question 2 was largely backed by members of the Mormon church.