This Space for Rent

As you sow so shall you reap

[money] "would have to come from programs. That's 30 new Cub Scout packs, or 800 needy kids going to our summer camp"

Gosh, that's horrible. What's the problem?

The city [of Philadelphia] has decided that the Boy Scouts chapter here must pay fair-market rent of $200,000 a year for its city-owned headquarters

Wow, that's a lot of money. Have you always been paying this, and it's just now become a problem?

he organization's Cradle of Liberty Council, which currently pays $1 a year in rent, must pay the increased amount to remain in its downtown building past May 31, Fairmount Park Commission president Robert N.C. Nix said Wednesday.

So this is recent. Why would Philadelphia suddenly decide to crank up your rent?

City officials say they cannot legally rent taxpayer-owned property for a nominal sum to a private organization that discriminates.

Oh, yes, there is that tiny little detail. Refresh my memory here; who exactly does the Boy Scouts discriminate against?

The Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that Scouts, as a private group, have a First Amendment right to bar gays from membership.

I'm going to grant the deceptively named Cradle of Liberty Council the benefit of the doubt here, because they did attempt to circumvent the homophobic regulations that the “National Council” of the American version of the Hitler Youth put in here. But when the leadership told them that they had to be bigots, the Cradle of Liberty Council had the option of telling the Boy Scouts to go fuck themselves.

They didn't, so now they've got to pay the rent.

And they'll get not a drop of sympathy from me.

--quotes from an Associated Press article, via Joe. My. God..