Gays and Lesbians for Individual Liberty (GLIL) is a non-partisan
organization founded in 1991 to advance the principles of the free market,
individual responsibility, and non-interference by government in the private
lives of all citizens. GLIL seeks to educate members of the gay and lesbian
community about these principles, while at the same time promoting tolerance
and acceptance of homosexuals among members of the wider society. GLIL is
based in Washington, D.C., with members across the United States and in several
foreign countries. To achieve its goals, GLIL sponsors lectures, debates,
panel discussions, fundraisers for charitable organizations, and social events.
GLIL also publishes a newsletter and utilizes a website to express its views,
while its members contribute articles to various publications.
The New Jersey Supreme Court's decision restricting the ability
of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to choose its own leaders and define its
own membership criteria dangerously erodes the freedom of all Americans, including
gay Americans, and should be reversed. Freedom of association is one of the
core liberties safeguarded by the Bill of Rights. See, e.g., Roberts v. United
States Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609 (1984). In particular, this Court has consistently
recognized that the First Amendment protects the freedom of expressive association,
which it has described as the "freedom to engage in association for the
advancement of beliefs and ideas." NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson,
357 U.S. 449, 460 (1958).
While
a robust protection for the freedom of association is important to all Americans,
it holds a special significance for gay and lesbian Americans. Throughout
this nation's history, gays have suffered in a variety of contexts when freedom
of association has not been respected and governments have been allowed to
trample on the rights of citizens to freely gather together.
An
organization's decision to associate with or to exclude openly gay individuals
conveys a powerful message -- either one of openness and tolerance, or one
of exclusion and disapproval. Either way, a message is sent. It is therefore
troublesome, from a First Amendment perspective, when a well-intentioned law
prohibiting discrimination is applied in a way to stifle such communication.
The
BSA's ability to communicate its disapproval of homosexuality, for instance,
is undoubtedly undermined when the State of New Jersey requires the organization
to allow openly gay individuals to become Scoutmasters, individuals who are
supposed to serve as role models to young Scouts.
The
New Jersey Supreme Court's decision here is especially pernicious for it places
the government in the intolerable position of second-guessing a private organization's
interpretation of its own rules and articulation of its own message. If this
litigation has made one thing clear, it is that the leadership of the BSA
disapproves of homosexuality and wishes to communicate this in some form to
its membership and to the outside world.
An
organization's freedom of expressive association cannot depend upon the degree
to which it may choose to emphasize certain aspects of its message at certain
times. Such a rule, in fact, works perversely to the detriment of gay Americans.
Under the test adopted by the New Jersey Supreme Court, which accords protection
only to forcefully stated messages, groups such as the Boy Scouts will be
encouraged to stress their anti-gay views so that they may retain their freedom
of expressive association.
GLIL
strongly disapproves of the BSA's moral views with respect to homosexuality
and wishes the organization would voluntarily end its policy of excluding
gays from serving as Scoutmasters. Nevertheless, the First Amendment protects
the freedom of the BSA to maintain this misguided policy if it so desires.
To deny the BSA's right to express its moral views through its decisions to
associate with or exclude certain people endangers the rights of all Americans,
including gay Americans.
Click
here for the full text of GLIL's amicus curiae in BSA v Dale. (pdf
format)
Return
to the GLIL home page.
This Page Last Updated on
Friday, 28 March, 2003 14:12