I am heartened by former First Selectman Mitch Goldblatt’s statement urging that the use of the public property known as Orange Fairgrounds be denied to the Boy Scouts of America because of their policy of discrimination against gays and lesbians. And equally, I am dismayed that the Board of Selectmen voted to allow its use.
While I deplore the position of the Boy Scouts of America, at the heart is the fact that the Orange Fairgrounds is public property and the board is entrusted, certainly by me as a resident, to consider its use ethically.
Were an organization to be anti-black, anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, I would expect my elected representatives to uphold the constitutional provisions that state that all men/women are created equal….and to insist that public grounds are not meant for exclusionary organizations nor meant to endorse, accept, turn an eye or in any way acknowledge the legitimacy of discrimination in whatever form it may exist….in this instance, in the form of the Boy Scouts of America.
Can you reverse your opinion? I don’t know. I do believe that your decision to use your seven minute “smart phone research” to focus on assessing the organization’s First Amendment rights was an error. In fact, as our public representatives, the only issue I believe you were charged to research was the appropriate the use of Orange public property within an ethical, moral and constitutional framework.
I am deeply disappointed in my town leaders and ashamed by the decision you reached.
Martha Sue Weisbart
Orange