The Walt Disney Company, like its Walt Disney World subsidiary, will no longer provide grant funding to the Boy Scouts of America due to the organization’s recently reaffirmed ban on LGBT adult volunteers. But a BSA spokesman seemed to blame Disney for the decision on Sunday.
The Associated Press reported Sunday that the entire Walt Disney Company will end its donations to the BSA starting in 2015, because of the anti-LGBT policy. Disney makes clear in its corporate “Standards of Business Conduct” that it and its affiliates do not allow “any form of harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identification, national origin, age, marital status, covered veteran status, disability, pregnancy or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.”
BSA spokesman Deron Smith told the AP:
SMITH: We believe every child deserves the opportunity to be a part of the Scouting experience and we are disappointed in this decision because it will impact our ability to serve kids.
In recent years, United Ways across the country have pulled funding from the organization over its continued discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Since 2012, Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, Major League Soccer, Merck, Intel, and UPS have all also ended their funding of the group. Membership in the organization has declined steadily.
Yet the Boy Scouts of America rejected the advice of Honorary National President Barack Obama and former national executive board member Mitt Romney, along with corporate America, opting last year to keep its policy of discrimination against LGBT adults.