City Will Decide If Boy Scouts Broke Law in Gay’s Suspension

San Diego city officials said they were investigating whether the Boy Scouts of America violated a human dignity ordinance by suspending the leader of a police youth group who publicly revealed that he is homosexual.

In a memorandum sent this week to City Manager Jack McGrory, Councilman John Hartley asked the city staff to examine whether the city, to comply with its policy of non-discrimination, could evict the Scouts from city property that the organization leases in Balboa and Mission Bay parks.

Hartley said he asked McGrory to place the issue on the City Council’s agenda as soon as possible.

Christiann L. Klein, an attorney and executive director of the city Human Relations Commission, said the city’s policy bars discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex or sexual orientation.

Police Officer Chuck Merino, an adviser for the past five years to the El Cajon Police Department’s Explorer program, was recently suspended from Scouting activities. Merino, 37, said he publicly declared his homosexuality several months ago at a community meeting that focused on hate crimes against gays.

Merino said he has empowered his attorney to decide whether to file a lawsuit against the Scouts.

Ron Brundage, president of the Boy Scout council, the official who suspended Merino, denied that the action was discriminatory. He said he did not believe the Scouts had violated the city’s human dignity ordinance.

Brundage said he had no choice but to suspend Merino after he revealed his sexual preference because the Boy Scouts’ national policy states that anyone who is a professed homosexual cannot be a troop leader.

The Scout council recently renewed its lease at $1 a year for a campground of about 12 acres and administrative offices in Balboa Park. In June, the Scouts opened a $2.5-million aquatic center on Fiesta Island in Mission Bay Park.