Still riding the high from Sunday’s PRIDE festivities, the Philadelphia gay and lesbian community is ready for opening statements to begin Tuesday in the local Boy Scout case.
The federal civil trial focuses on the quarrel between the City of Philadelphia and the Boy Scouts over whether the scouts should be evicted from their rent-free headquarters in Center City.
The local scouts group, the Cradle of Liberty Council, refuses to renounce the organization’s ban on homosexuals and Mayor Michael Nutter says that's the condition they have to meet to stay in the downtown building.
Six women and two men were chosen Monday to serve on the jury throughout the case. They were told to avoid news and other media accounts about the case, and were advised not to discuss the case with family or friends or to post anything about it on Facebook or Twitter, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts could exclude gay youth and troop leaders as the group is categorized as a “membership organization.” The city maintains that the local Cradle of Liberty Council’s refusal to openly reject the national scout policy violates the City Charter.
The Scouts were faced with an ultimatum: pay $200,000 a year to lease the building or vacate their 80-year-old headquarters they have occupied rent-free.
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