PHILADELPHIA — A Boy Scouts of America group will vacate its city-owned Philadelphia headquarters in return for $825,000 under an agreement that settles a long legal battle over the organization’s ban on gays, Mayor Michael Nutter’s office said Friday.
The Boy Scouts Cradle of Liberty Council staff will leave its downtown Philadelphia headquarters of 85 years by June 30 and the retail store in the building will close by Oct. 31. In exchange, the city will reimburse the Boy Scouts for improvements made to the building, Nutter’s office said.
The group’s rent-free use of the building came under fire after the Boy Scouts of America barred gays from membership. The city unsuccessfully sought to have the chapter evicted for violation of Philadelphia’s anti-discrimination policies.
Ultimately, the Cradle of Liberty Council decided that the battle was becoming a distraction and it was in the best interests of the city’s boys who they were trying to recruit to put an end to it, the group’s scout executive, Tom Harrington, said.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
“If anything, this is good news that will help us renew our focus on serving those youth,” Harrington said.
A proposal under discussion by the Boy Scouts’ National Council to partially lift the policy — allowing gays as youth members but continuing to bar them as adult leaders — was followed closely by city officials, but it wasn’t going to go far enough, Harrington said.
Article continues below
City Council had also rejected a previous proposal to resolve the conflict by selling the Scouts the building for $500,000.
The city insisted at a June 2010 trial that nonprofits given free use of its property must abide by local anti-discrimination laws, which include equal protection for gays. But the jury found the city’s reason violated the Scout council’s First Amendment rights.
The Cradle of Liberty Council has about 17,000 members in Philadelphia and its suburbs.