Countdown To Ignorance: 3…2…

Boy Scouts in Berkeley, California recently sued the Berkeley Marina, demanding that they be allowed to dock boats there for free, despite their attitude toward gays. Yesterday, the California Supreme Court slapped the Boy Scouts across the mouth, telling them that they can implicitly discriminate against gays by maintaining their relationships with the national Boy Scouts, or they can have their free docking priveleges at the marina, but they can’t have both.

Recently, we’ve seen columnists like Maggie Gallagher demanding special treatment for religious organizations who similarly discriminate against gays. Gallagher was defending the rights of religious organizations to refuse adoptive services to gay parents; the Boy Scouts maintains the right to refuse gays. Advocates for their continued special treatment maintain that organizations shouldn’t be forced into tolerating homosexuals.

What they’re ignoring is that nobody, anywhere, is forcing these organizations to stop discriminating. These organizations are simply being told that, if they believe so deeply in discriminating against gays, they should be willing to give up whatever governmental support they’d been receiving. And quite frankly, I’m not entirely sure what the problem is. This is just another example of individuals (and organizations) being held responsible for their actions. And there is no reason why the government should subsidize organizations that insist on treating individuals differently simply because they’re gay.

So quite frankly, the Sea Scouts in Berkeley, and that adoption service in Massachusetts, can go to hell. They ought to be willing to sacrifice to defend their ignorant beliefs, and there’s no reason why decent taxpayers ought to subsidize hatred.

Needless to say, you can rest assured that social conservatives won’t stand for this one bit…later today, I’ll link to the columns decrying the unfair treatment that these poor discriminators are receiving.