Countywide : Ferguson to Continue Pushing Scouting Bill

Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) vowed Thursday to continue pushing a bill that would allow the Boy Scouts of America to determine its own standards for membership, including banning homosexuals.

The Assembly Rules Committee rejected the bill Monday, but Ferguson said he will seek to bring his proposal to the full Assembly for a vote.

ACR 134 would recognize that the Boy Scouts is a private organization and would acknowledge the organization’s right to determine its own standards for membership and leadership and its right to refer to God in its oath, according to Ferguson.

The assemblyman proposed the resolution in response to recent decisions by the Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, Levi Strauss and Co. and the Bay Area United Way to stop funding the Boy Scouts because of the organization’s ban on homosexual Scouts and troop leaders.

“I and other legislators find that abhorrent,� Ferguson said.

Ferguson also defended the reference to God in the Scout oath, calling it a nondenominational term that spans all religions. “They just say that, on their honor, they will do their duty to God and country,� he said.

The assemblyman said he mentioned the oath in his bill because of the Randall twins, 10-year-old Anaheim Hills brothers who were ousted from the Cub Scouts for refusing to say God in the oath. Last month, a Superior Court judge ruled that the twins should be allowed back into their Cub pack.

Assemblyman Richard L. Mountjoy (R-Monrovia), a Rules Committee member who supported the bill, said that all the committee Republicans backed the proposal and will help Ferguson bring it to the floor for a vote.

But supporters of gay and lesbian rights denounced the effort as a waste of time and money.

Ferguson “is putting up this crazy stuff to show he hates gays,� said Dave Barton, a member of ACT-UP Orange County. “But gays are his constituents too.�