Gays lose fight to be scout leaders

Two gay Boy Scout leaders in the US today lost their bid to return to the organisation when an appeal court overturned an order that they be reinstated as troop leaders.

The Washington court’s decision found that the Boy Scouts of America did not act illegally in barring the two, Roland Pool and Michael Geller. The decision reverses a ruling issued last year by a US Commission on Human Rights.

The appeal court said it based its decision on a June 2000 Supreme Court ruling.

The high court declared then that the Boy Scouts could bar homosexuals from serving as troop leaders. In that 5-4 decision, justices ruled that forcing the Scouts to accept gay troop leaders would violate the organisation’s right of “expressive association” under the Constitution’s First Amendment.