Effective June 15, 1992, Levi Strauss & Co. chose to no longer provide support to the Boy Scouts of America due to BSA's unwillingness to allow male homosexuals leading roles within that organization. I wrote to Levi Strauss expressing my disappointment with their decision and in response received a letter from their "consumer affairs manager."
Included within the letter was a "fact sheet" explaining that, "It was brought to our attention last year that the Boy Scouts of America's membership criteria relating to religious beliefs and sexual orientation might conflict with our nondiscrimination policy." Question: Who brought this to their attention?The letter explained that, "It is not our intention or goal to be punitive or to force the Boy Scouts . . . to change its policies to comply with our funding guidelines." Yet clearly denying contributions to organization dependent upon voluntary support exerts a coercive impact, particularly when accompanied with a political justification for the discontinuance.
The letter said Levi Strauss' " . . . policies and practices for charitable contributions are based on the company's core values and respect for individual freedoms. Based on this philosophy, Levi Strauss & Co. will provide support to organizations that do not discriminate on the basis of age, political affiliation, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation or religious belief."
She continued, " . . . we simply cannot fund the Boy Scouts of America because we cannot fund any organization with discriminatory practices." Question: Does not the very name, "Boy" Scouts of America imply discrimination based upon gender, even age, and has it not always been so? Why now the change in support?
Has not BSA, then, always been in violation of Levi Strauss' "age and gender" discrimination criteria? What changed in the Boy Scouts to trigger Levi Strauss' reaction in 1992?
I submit that nothing changed in the Boy Scouts of America. It continued doing what it has always done. What changed was the mindset of Levi Strauss & Co.'s management. I suspect they yielded to pressure from some highly vocal, special interest group that has a broad political/social agenda far larger than just the Boy Scouts.
Ultimately, each of us will decide when, or if, to make a stand. I suggest during this holiday season, so important to retail merchants, we show our approval, or disapproval, of Levi Strauss' position concerning support of the Boy Scouts through our choice of purchases. The economic weapon of choice cuts both ways.
P. Mower
West Jordan