UPS TO STOP FUNDING BOYS SCOUTS OF AMERICA

Thanks to its anti-gay policy, the Boy Scouts of America is set to lose funding from global courier company UPS.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) reported on Monday that the delivery company’s charity foundation had amended its non-discrimination policy to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

UPS confirmed to GLAAD that under its new guidelines, organisations whose practices do not align with the foundation’s non-discrimination policy will no longer be considered eligible for funding. In 2010, the UPS Foundation gave $167,000 to various Boy Scouts of America entities.

Despite growing pressure, The Boy Scouts of America has refused to change its long-standing policy of barring gay and lesbian children, parents or scout leaders from taking part in the organisation.

In September, the Intel Foundation also announced that it could no longer fund organisations like the Boy Scouts of America, so long as the Scouts stand by their anti-gay ban.

“More and more corporate leaders are enacting strong non-discrimination policies for practices including grant funding and hiring,” commented GLAAD President Herndon Graddick.

“The time is now for the BSA to end this outdated and unpopular ban before other corporate funders pull dollars and scouting families drop their support,” he said.

Jennifer Tyrrell, a lesbian mom and den leader from Ohio who generated international headlines after she was removed from her seven-year-old’s Cub Scout Pack for being gay in April, welcomed the news

“It is time that the BSA respects the needs of the American people and stops rejected devoted parents and scouts because they happen to be LGBT. Until the BSA joins the national trend of equality, sponsors of the organisation should continue to withhold support or support the growing number of troops that have rejected the ban,” she said.

Earlier this year President Obama, who serves as honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America, publicly voiced his opposition to the Boy Scouts of America’s anti-gay policy.