California Senate: Scouts didn't go far enough

Less than a week after the Boy Scouts changed its policy to allow gay-identifying youth, the California Senate passed a law that would revoke the organization's tax-exempt status if it doesn't also allow gay leaders.

The bill is aimed at all tax-exempt youth organizations, but it was evident from the get-go -- when Democratic state Sen. Ricardo Lara introduced the bill in February -- that the Scouts were the primary target.

On May 23, delegates at the Boy Scouts' national meeting approved new guidelines allowing homosexual-identifying youth to be members. The policy still prohibits openly homosexual adults from serving as leaders. Six days later the California Senate, by a vote of 27-9, passed a bill that would reverse the tax-exempt status of youth organizations that discriminate on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.

"They are out of line with the values of California and should be ineligible for a tax benefit paid for by all Californians," Lara said of the Scouts, according to The Sacramento Bee. "... We've given the Boy Scouts ample time to solve their discrimination problem. And they've chosen a path that still leads to discrimination."

The bill now moves to the Assembly, the lower house of California’s Legislature. Read more