Group Tells Boy Scouts of America ‘Not to Wimp Out’ on Gay-Lesbian Ban
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KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — On Wednesday a group calling itself NoWimpOuts.com urged the Boy Scouts of America not to repeal its policy that bans gays and lesbians from joining, and chastised politicians for not doing enough to support the ban.
The BSA Executive Board was expected to announce a decision on the gay-lesbian ban Wednesday, but instead said it would take more time to receive more feedback on the long-held prohibition before bringing it to a vote before the National Council.
NoWimpOuts.com on Wednesday released an ad calling President Obama the “gay activist-in-chief” for his support for lifting the ban.
The ad, according to NoWimpOuts, will start running Friday in Ohio on Fox and MSNBC.
The president told CBS’ Scott Pelley in an interview Sunday that he supported a repeal of the rule, and that he believes “gays and lesbians should have access and opportunities, the same way as everyone else does, in every institution and walk of life.”
The ad also takes aim at House Speaker John Boehner for not opposing Obama’s push to open up the Scouts’ membership and for agreeing to push back the debt limit.
Judd Saul, a spokesman for NoWimpOuts and vice president of Iowa-based Patriots for Christ, said Boehner was going to “sacrifice young people.”
“Obama is like a bully in a leather bar and weepy John Boehner, the nation’s top Republican, has set a pattern for wimp-outs by his constant caving to that bully,” Saul wrote in a statement emailed to ABC News. “Clueless corporate types on the Boy Scout board…are now following that sad example.”
The organization’s website publishes what it claims are the names and phone numbers of the BSA’s board members and has very little other content. The YouTube account hosting the ad was created Monday.
Another conservative group, the Family Research Council, took out an ad in USA Today Monday advising the BSA board not to “compromise moral principles under political and financial pressure.”
That same day, Scout leaders delivered petitions to headquarters with 1.4 million signatures urging the BSA to do away with the ban, according to the Dallas Voice.
The scouting organization will not announce its decision on whether or not to lift the ban until after a vote in May.
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