A Connecticut United Way group Thursday threatened to cut off financial support for a local Boy Scout council unless the organization signed a pledge that it would no longer discriminate against gay people.
The new policy by the United Way of Greater New Haven was believed to be among the first of its kind in the Northeast. The United Way in San Francisco cut off support to the Boy Scouts in its area two years ago because of the organization's national policy barring membership to homosexuals.While the New Haven United Way emphasized that its nondiscrimination policy applied to all recipients of its donations, it had been under intense political pressure to cut off support to the Scouts after it was disclosed this week that the Quinnipiac Council of Boy Scouts had dismissed a veteran Scout leader solely because he is homosexual.
The Quinnipiac Council, based in Hamden, Conn., receives $70,000, less than 10 percent of its budget, from the United Way.
The 67-year-old volunteer Scout leader, a former Eagle Scout, said he had been dismissed by the council last month after someone - he does not know who - brought his homosexuality to the Scouts' attention.