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This can be read different ways: Boy Scouts are penalized $199,000 per year for not permitting gay scouts. Boy Scouts would be rewarded $199,000 per year for permitting gay scouts. Boy Scouts are bribed $199,000 per year to permit gay scouts.

Au contraire. In Philadelphia, the BSA has been politically correct since 2003.

May 2003--The end of the Boy Scouts in Philadelphia:Philadelphia’s Cradle of Liberty Boy Scout Council self-destructed last week. Its executive board voted unanimously to include "sexual orientation" in its nondiscrimination code. The outrageous move came after years of intense pressure from radical homosexual and atheist rights groups in the area and nationwide.

The Philadelphia Council is the third largest local council in the country, serving 87,000 boys and men. It is an unfortunate addition to a list of councils that have eagerly given the finger to the Boy Scouts of America and its associated moral codes. Last year, San Francisco and Boston became the first branches to reject the concept of “moral straightness.”

I found this Wikipedia article on the Cradle of LIberty BSA Council that gives history and citations, and provides answers to some of our questions. This article makes it rather clear that the fight is political and centered on forcing the BSA to admit gay leaders.

It seems that this struggle has been going on for several years. The Council even tried, as one of you noted, to institute a non-discrimination policy in 2003 towards gays in an attempt to resolve the dispute, but that move was rejected by the National Council, throwing the Liberty Council back on the mercy of the City politicians determined to force the acceptance of gay scout leaders.

This Cradle of Liberty Council is a merger between the Philadelphia Council, which houses the Scout Executive and District Executives for the districts within the city limits (the building this thread is about) and another Council in the western suburbs. Therefore there is another suitable building in the Valley Forge area scheduled for further enlargement, but, "[although] the city office has less space for training, [it] has been maintained mainly for easier access to city residents, who would otherwise have to use either mass transit (which has limited stops in Valley Forge), or drive on the Schuylkill Expressway (Interstate 76), which is notorious for backups between Center City and Valley Forge." I can attest that the drive to Valley Forge takes at least 40 minutes, is difficult, and is next to impossible for the parents of impoverished inner city kids.

Further, the article says "the city could lose $62 million in federal funds with the eviction because of the Support Our Scouts Act of 2005 and the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act."