Linda Harvey Recounts Conversation with UPS on Cutting off Funding to Boy Scouts

Is UPS encouraging local Scout troops to undermine national policy against homosexuality?

We at AFTAH found this this report by Mission America’s Linda Harvey about her conversation with UPS (United Parcel Service) very eye-opening. After our initial report on UPS “dropping” the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) through its new, more stringent pro-homosexual charitable giving policy, several of our readers wrote to inform us that UPS is telling people that it is NOT dropping the Scouts. I called UPS today and a staffer reiterated some of the same points as Ruiz’s below. And we are seeking clarifications from the BSA on UPS’ claims, which we will pass on to you. You can call the UPS Foundation at 404-828-6374 and the Scouts at 972-580-2000. For additional contact info for UPS and the Scouts, go HERE. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

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Here is Harvey’s recollection of the conversation:

I called UPS today ( November 15, 2012) and was immediately told that they had not cut funding to the Boy Scouts, but they would connect me to someone who would explain further. I then talked with Joe Ruiz, a manager in the UPS Foundation.

Ruiz said no, they had not cut funding to the Boy Scouts, that the media reports were inaccurate. What they’ve done is changed their discrimination policy and if prospective grantees don’t “check the box” stating that they have a policy prohibiting discrimination on sexual orientation and gender identity, they would not be eligible.

So I responded that, essentially, UPS has indeed cut funding to the Boy Scouts. Not if they would “check the box,” he said. (It was like talking to a wall). Then, he told me his understanding is that some of the individual Boy Scout groups around the country had indicated they would “check the box,” and so would be eligible. I said, do you mean they are going against the national organization? Well, that would be up to each of them, he said.

I listed the problems with homosexual behavior, and that it was not like race or like being Hispanic, or like a disability. But after asking me if I thought all homosexuals were pedophiles, and I told him he was putting words in my mouth, Ruiz didn’t budge or seem to understand the problems at all with the behavior. Rather he just kept repeating that UPS as a company was “inclusive.”

But then he said that he had heard that the Boy Scouts were going to start a separate group for “gay” youth for “support.” I asked if he understood this to be to help boys leave homosexuality. He said he didn’t know, but that he had heard it was for “support.” It didn’t sound like ex-homosexual counseling.

Then, I asked him:  had UPS executives considered that this revised policy discriminates against those who object to homosexual behavior because of religious faith? He said that it shouldn’t be a problem, as long as a group like the Catholic Charities (he brought them up) “checked the box.” But the Catholic Church opposes homosexual behavior, I said, and so do many other people of faith. He kept saying they would have to “check the box” to be eligible.

Ruiz kept repeating that the policy was about being “open and inclusive” and I kept repeating that no, it was not, it’s about immoral behavior. I asked him about the [corporation’s] “gender identity” policy, if it was OK for cross-dressers to be in the Boy Scouts, to which I got a very derisive laugh.

Also, Ruiz did mention — with regard to UPS’ homosexual-affirming non-discrimination — that “it was the law,” and that this was one of UPS’ motivators. I told him there was no such federal law banning “sexual orientation” nondiscrimination.

The number of the UPS Foundation is  404-828-6374.