Banks’ Scout Funding Decision Protested : Demonstration: Picketers said plan to stop donations discriminates against the youth organization.

More than 300 people on Friday picketed the branch offices of Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank to protest a decision by the banks to stop funding the Boy Scouts of America because of the group’s ban on homosexuals.

The protesters, many of whom arrived from out of town, charged that the two banks have discriminated against the Scouts by discontinuing funding.

“I had four sons who were Boy Scouts,” said protester Mary Lou Chelf of Laguna Beach. “I have grandchildren who I hope will be Scouts because it’s a wonderful program. I don’t want them to be forced to do things that are against traditional moral values.”

“We’re here because we support the Boy Scouts and their right to make moral decisions in terms of who will be their leaders,” said John Stewart, a radio talk show host and Christian activist who organized the protest.

Representatives from each bank, which decided separately to cut off a combined total of $53,000 in annual funding recently, said their action was based on corporate policies against discrimination.

“The bank has a clear policy against discrimination based on such things as race, sex, religion, marital status and sexual orientation,” said Russell Yarrow, spokesman for Bank of America, which donated $18,000 to the Scouts last year.

Wells Fargo Vice President Dan W. Conway said the protesters were orderly as they sang hymns and marched in front of the bank at 3400 Bristol St. They then marched over to nearby Bank of America at 3233 Park Center Drive, across from South Coast Plaza.

“The effects were minimal,” Conway said shortly after the protest ended. “We believe that the Scouts play an important role in the community. But we have a very high standard of non-discrimination and it’s something that we take very seriously.”

Yarrow and Conway said both banks will follow through with financial commitments to the Scouts for the rest of the year and that the decision to discontinue funding will become effective in January.

The protesters, who urged passers-by to cancel their accounts at the two local branches, were met by three counter-protesters--the Randall family, who recently won a court battle challenging the Boy Scouts’ right to exclude atheists.

“This protest is totally appalling to me,” said James Randall, an attorney who represented his twin sons in the case. “This traditional values thing is scary. If you want to talk about values, I think values mean love, kindness, charity and respect for others’ beliefs.”

Randall, accompanied by his wife, Valerie, and one of the twins in the celebrated case, Michael, stood a few feet away from the protesters holding up a sign in support of the banks.

Conway said Wells Fargo’s decision two weeks ago to pull the funding was also based on the Randall case. The 10-year-old twins had been excluded from the program because they refused to take an oath to God.

Boy Scouts of America national spokesman Blake Lewis called the contributions of the two banks “modest” and said his organization did not “condone or encourage” the protests.