Disney To End Funding For Boy Scouts Over Gay Leader Ban
The Walt Disney Company announced Saturday it would withdraw funding from the Boy Scouts of America beginning in 2015 unless the scouting organization overturns a policy banning gay leaders.
Disney doesnt directly donate to the Boy Scouts, but plans to stop allowing employees to do volunteer work through Disneys VoluntEARS program in exchange for cash donations to the Boy Scouts of America, reports CNN.
Disney employees raised a total of $4.8 million for charity in 2010 by volunteering for various events, including a triathlon for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, the Revlon Run-Walk for cancer, and Childrens Hospital of Orange County Walk at Disneyland Resort. Groups become ineligible to receive aid from Disney through the companys volunteer-for-cash programs if they discriminate based on race, religion, color, sex, national origin, age, marital status, mental or physical ability, or sexual orientation, the company said.
The Boy Scouts of America voted last year to maintain a ban on gay Scout leaders, but allowed gay youths to join the Scouts ranks.
Scouts for Equality, a group working to end discrimination in the Boy Scouts, voiced support for Disneys decision to end funding for the Boy Scouts over the banning of gay leaders.
Read more: Disney To Halt Boy Scout Funding In Protest At Gay Leader Ban | TIME.com http://nation.time.com/2014/03/01/disney-stop-boy-scout-funding-protest-anti-gay-leader-ban/#ixzz2ul1ITKtH