CBS Evening News open - 1999-08-04

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:03] A federal court rules that the Boy

[0:04] Scouts ban against gays is illegal. The

[0:07] issue now appears headed for the US

[0:10] Supreme Court. The Clintons speak out

[0:12] publicly again about the president's

[0:15] childhood problems and marital

[0:17] infidelity. And on the CBS Weather

[0:19] Watch, the summer heat's on. Will your

[0:22] power go off?

[0:26] This is the CBS Evening News.

[0:30] with Dan Rather reporting from CBS News

[0:33] headquarters in New York. Good evening.

[0:36] The question is this. Can someone be

[0:38] banned from the Boy Scouts of America

[0:40] because he is gay? The latest federal

[0:42] court to rule on that question today

[0:44] said no. But it appears the final word

[0:47] on this hotly debated issue may well

[0:49] come from the highest court in the

[0:50] country. As CBS's Jacquellyn Adams

[0:53] reports,

[0:54] >> citizenship in the world, citizenship in

[0:56] the nation. Today, more than ever, James

[0:58] Dale thinks he deserves the citizenship

[1:00] badges he earned as a boy scout now that

[1:02] New Jersey's highest court has ruled in

[1:04] his favor, declaring the organization's

[1:07] ban on homosexuality illegal.

[1:09] >> This victory means that the Supreme

[1:11] Court of New Jersey agrees agrees with

[1:13] me that scouting is not about bigotry.

[1:15] Scouting is about something so much

[1:16] better and so much grander than that.

[1:18] >> Today's victory was a long time coming

[1:20] for this Eagle Scout. 9 years ago, Dale

[1:23] revealed he was gay. Despite a decade as

[1:26] an exemplary scout, leaders expelled him

[1:29] from both his local New Jersey troop and

[1:31] the National Boy Scouts of America. Dale

[1:34] sued and lost when a lower court

[1:35] declared that homosexual acts are

[1:37] immoral. Indeed, the Boy Scouts argue

[1:40] that their code of conduct demands that

[1:42] scouts be morally straight. In today's

[1:44] ruling though, the justices unanimously

[1:47] rejected that view, writing, "The Boy

[1:49] Scouts of America's expulsion of Dale

[1:51] was based on prejudice and not on a

[1:53] unified Boy Scout position." The

[1:56] justices concluded, "The human price of

[1:58] this bigotry has been enormous. It is

[2:00] unquestionably a compelling interest of

[2:03] this state to eliminate the destructive

[2:05] consequences of discrimination from our

[2:07] society."

[2:08] >> This is exactly what scouting is about.

[2:10] equality, fair play, community, and

[2:13] standing up for the rights of people.

[2:15] >> Among New Jerseys scouting families,

[2:17] though, some would like to see the ban

[2:18] on homosexuality continued.

[2:20] >> It's an activity that is amoral and

[2:23] shouldn't be, you know, uh the kind of

[2:25] thing that is promoted or or treated as

[2:27] equal.

[2:28] >> Jolene Strife says she's not anti-gay,

[2:30] but like her sons, she's worried about

[2:33] scouts sharing close quarters. I don't

[2:35] have any problem with homosexuals, but

[2:37] um I think I would have somewhat of a

[2:40] problem if they're on the same camping

[2:41] trip with me, sharing the same tent with

[2:44] me, something like that. I might feel a

[2:45] little awkward about it.

[2:46] >> The Boy Scouts of America plans to

[2:48] appeal New Jerseys ruling to the US

[2:50] Supreme Court. spokesman would not

[2:52] appear on camera, but they insist