A proposal from an ethics advisory committee to the California Supreme Court will potentially ban California judges from belonging to the Boy Scouts of America because of the organization's discrimination against gays. 47 states already ban judges from belonging to discriminatory groups, and 22 of those, including California, explicitly include groups that show bias on the basis of sexual orientation in their bans.
As the LA Times reports, he committee's proposal says that including the Boy Scouts among those groups considered discriminatory, and therefore preventing judges from being troop leaders, would "promote the integrity of the judiciary” and “enhance public confidence in the impartiality of the judiciary."
Currently, the Boy Scouts organization is given a special exemption from the rules surrounding discriminatory groups, and the proposal recommends removing that exemption, which has been a point of contention for over ten years.
This story follows on years of controversy surrounding the Boy Scouts' policies regarding the LGBT community, and the organization continues to ban openly gay and lesbian parents from serving as troop leaders. They did, however, decide last year to allow openly gay kids to belong to the organization, and that policy took effect on January 1 of this year.
The proposed policy change for judges is now open for public comment until April 15, and you can leave yours here.
