Northwestern’s BGALA is one of many gay-and lesbian-rights groups upset about the United Way’s recent decision to continue funding the Chicago branch of Boy Scouts of America – an organization that has been accused of indirectly promoting intolerance.

After months of deliberation, the United Way in Chicago elected it would donate $400,000 to Learning for Life, a Boy Scouts program that helps about 30,000 economically disadvantaged inner-city youth in Chicago. The protesting groups are upset with the “troops” program, a well-known part of the Boy Scouts organization that won a Supreme Court case last year allowing them to fire leaders based on sexual preference.

Jim Kales, director of communication for the United Way in Chicago, said his group funded the program because it is open to all youths. However, the protesting groups see the troops program as reason enough for the charity group to cut funding.

“We think it’s outrageous that any organization that sees itself as mentors of America’s youth would infect the next generation with this message,” said Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network.

“They are implicity promoting hate,” he said. “It’s a clear issue of principle. We were explicit in saying that we would not consider a rotten compromise.”

And to Thayer, funnelling money to a specific program was just that. So his group, which met twice with the United Way and had numerous phone conversations, decided to take action. They distributed flyers to NU’s Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Alliance to rally support for their efforts.

BGALA co-president Conci Nelson said the goal of the poster was to get students calling and writing the United Way in Chicago. She said her group is going to follow the Network’s lead by having firesides and information sessions on the issue this fall.

“We’re not as active as we used to be,” said Nelson, a Speech sophomore. “We’ve become more socially oriented. But it’s not OK to give money to an organization that discriminates. We won’t support it.”

Nelson said the funding wasn’t a big issue in the past because not many people were expelled from the Boy Scouts because of their sexual preferences. She said the recent increase brought the issue to people’s attention again.

Attention that Kales said he wishes was spent looking at the purpose of Learning for Life.

“We felt it was a very strong program we had to fund because of its inclusiveness,” Kales said.

He said the United Way’s money will never reach the troops, but rather go only toward the outreach program that makes up 75 percent of the Chicago Boy Scouts’ agenda. The United Way in Chicago’s board of directors believed that the program’s aim to help underprivileged kids warranted the backing.

But Thayer said there are other solutions.

“Our point was that there are many other agencies that help at-risk kids,” Thayer said. “How would a gay kid feel enrolled in an allegedly non-discriminatory program (within an organization that discriminates)? It’s like a black kid being in a program within a white supremacist group.”

Thayer explained that unlike the highly centralized Boy Scouts program, branches of the United Way have much more power to decide and implement policy. He pointed to branches that had decided to discontinue funding because they wouldn’t tolerate hate, such as one in southeast Minnesota.

Evanston United Way agreed to cease the $5,000 funding for their local Boy Scouts program in September, a decision that will go into effect next fiscal year. Tom Jager, executive director of Evanston United Way, said the organization didn’t agree with Boy Scout policy of not allowing homosexuals to volunteer.

“We have no Learning for Life in the suburbs,” Jager said. “Our money never went to troops. It always went to money for training volunteers. We have a non-discriminatory policy, so we couldn’t fund them anymore.”

Like Jager, Thayer knows that money talks in the world of organizations. He said cutting off financial ties is the only way to get the point across.

“If you aren’t cutting funding, you aren’t doing anything,” Thayer said. “It’s the only thing that gets nationals worried.”