Ending discrimination in the city

At times my phone is like a time machine. The other day, I picked it up and heard the infamous line: “You may not remember me, but ...” This particular caller had met me one time in Chicago — in 1974. The events of that date were easy to remember. Chicago officials had asked me to be grand marshal for their first gay pride parade and rally. To promote the event, they arranged all sorts of publicity for the four days prior to the event.

The man on the phone was the former executive director of the then-just-opened Howard Brown Clinic for the gay and lesbian community. He now resides in San Francisco and is a person living with HIV, and has done so for close to 30 years without any medication. He is evidently involved with medical studies. (This is just one way PGN gets its news.)

Other ways include networking and people calling us with information. One of the issues we’re hearing a lot about is the proposed settlement with the Boy Scouts and the city land they are using. If rumors are correct, it seems that the rental price will take into account the funds the Boy Scouts used to build their palace on the Parkway instead of fair-market value. This would be tantamount to the sentence for Saddam Hussein being adjusted because of how nice his palaces are. This is city land that they are on; the value is not the building, but the land itself.

If the Boy Scouts are tossed out of the city-owned property, it would be financially responsible for the city to either use the building itself or, better yet, sell the parcel to enrich the city’s treasury. And for any new construction, the neighbors on the Parkway would need to provide input.

Moving the Scouts out of this location would not hinder any of the Scouting programs. This is a headquarters location, and frankly, they can run their operation out of a warehouse in Kensington or Fishtown. As long as they are discriminating, the city does not need to give them a lease with discount rates.

The price of a new monthly lease should be fair-market value. The value of the current building (and any improvements the Scouts have made) has absolutely nothing to do with this issue. Giving a discount is tantamount to allowing discrimination.

Let me remind city officials that the application to become a Boy Scout or an employee of the Scouts here in Philadelphia states that no applications will be accepted from “known or avowed homosexuals.” Now replace homosexuals with Jews, African Americans or Catholics.

Mark Segal is PGN publisher. His column appears weekly.