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Compiled By GayToday
 Sen. Jesse Helms:
Looking to Punish Schools that Stood Up for Equal Rights |
Washington, D.C--An amendment offered by
Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., to the education bill, an unnecessary anti-gay
attack, was decried yesterday by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
The Helms amendment would prohibit federal funding to schools that
choose not to offer facilities to Boy Scout troops because of their
discriminatory policy banning gay scouts. However, the measure is pointless,
because the law already dictates that the Boy Scouts have equal access to
school facilities, asserts HRC. |
"Sadly, the old Jesse Helms is back, using his position of power to
bully those with whom he disagrees," says HRC Political Director Winnie
Stachelberg.
"The Boy Scouts have always had, and still have access to
schools, so this is really nothing more than a punishment in search of a
problem."
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Local school boards currently have the right to limit access to, and
use of, public school facilities. The Helms amendment would force local
school boards to abandon these long-standing policies by mandating the
creation of an "open forum" once a school allows any community group to use
these facilities.
"The foundation of federal education policy is based on the principle of
local control, and such decisions should be left to local school boards,"
said Stachelberg. "The Helms amendment is clearly a federal intrusion into
the decisions of local school boards."
Helms said on the Senate floor Monday that "radical militants" were trying
to ban the Boy Scouts from campuses. He also said they [gay activists]
"demand that everybody else's principles must be cast aside in order to
protect the right of homosexual conduct."
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Related Sites:
Human Rights Campaign
Scouting for All
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