Police Cut Ties to Scouts Over Anti-Gay Policy

San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen severed the department’s ties to the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday because the organization discriminates against homosexuals.

Burgreen said he ordered police officials to return a charter to operate a police Explorer post for the Boy Scouts. The San Diego Police Explorer Post has been a part of the department for more than 25 years and currently has 35 members ages 16 to 20.

The chief said at a news conference that he was saddened by the action but that to continue the relationship was tantamount to sanctioning discrimination.

The department is the first law enforcement agency in San Diego County to break ties with the Boy Scouts over the group’s controversial policy. In recent months, several Bay Area police agencies have also severed ties with the Boy Scouts because of the organization’s policy of banning gays as troop leaders.

Burgreen said he acted after learning that local Boy Scout officials had removed El Cajon Police Officer Chuck Merino as adviser to that city’s Explorer troop after Merino acknowledged he is homosexual. El Cajon Police Chief Jack Smith also condemned the decision to remove Merino but did not sever ties with the organization.

On Tuesday, Burgreen expressed his objections to both Merino’s removal and the Boy Scouts’ official policy regarding homosexuals. The group’s national policy holds that openly gay men are not appropriate role models for young boys, and it prohibits gays from becoming Scout leaders.

“This is a question of what’s right and what’s wrong,” Burgreen said. “The Boy Scout policy is clearly wrong.”

Burgreen compared the Boy Scouts’ anti-gay policy to the Jim Crow laws that sanctioned racial discrimination in the South 30 years ago.

“In the South there were once two water fountains: One says white, one says colored,” Burgreen said. “In the Boy Scouts we have two policies: One says gay, one says straight.”

Ron Brundage, president of the local Boy Scouts Council, declined to comment on Burgreen’s action. However, in the past Brundage has said he had no choice but to suspend Merino after the officer disclosed his sexual preference.

Merino could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but Burgreen said that “what an officer does in his or her own time is their own business.”

“I hope what we’re doing causes others to look at the (Boy Scout) policy. . . .” Burgreen said. “If they can discriminate against gays, maybe (they will think) it’s OK to discriminate against Jews, atheists, blacks . . . “

The chief also accused the Boy Scouts of equating homosexuals with child molesters.

“This is a stereotype that is not true,” Burgreen said. “It’s time people stood up and said this is not true.”

The flap between Merino and the Boy Scouts has spilled into the San Diego City Council, which asked the city’s Human Relations Commission to investigate. The Scouts lease a 12-acre campground and administrative offices at Balboa Park from the city for $1 a year. In addition, the Scouts operate a $2.5-million aquatic center on city-owned Fiesta Island in Mission Bay Park.

Christiann L. Klein, executive director of the Human Relations Commission, said state law and the city’s human dignity ordinance prohibits discrimination because of a person’s sexual preference. The commission is holding a hearing on the Boy Scout issue at 5 p.m. today.

Klein said Merino filed a written complaint with the commission Monday, charging the Boy Scouts with discrimination. However, Klein said Burgreen’s action Tuesday was not prompted by the complaint.

“The chief had told me in very strong terms a couple of weeks ago that it was his plan to surrender the charter,” Klein said. “He didn’t want police officers to be subjected to this type of discrimination.”

In a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, Klein said the commission had offered to mediate the dispute between Merino and the Boy Scouts.

“I spoke with Brundage and asked him if the Boy Scouts would be interested in a mediated resolution of Merino’s complaint,” Klein said. “Brundage checked with his attorneys and said he didn’t see where mediation would be useful, since it is a national policy of the Boy Scouts to bar gays.”

Although the department has now officially severed its ties to the Boy Scouts, Burgreen said the Explorer program will not be abandoned. Police will continue a similar program under a different name. The San Diego Police Explorer troop is one of seven such posts in San Diego County. Explorer Scouts assist sworn officers in directing traffic, crowd control and other non-law-enforcement roles.