Carly Rae Jepsen cancels Jamboree show over Boy Scouts’ anti-gay membership rules

[LG]

“I always have and always will support the LGBT community on a global level,” tweeted Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen, who performed Monday in east London

The sexual politics surrounding the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on openly gay members has bled into the 2013 Boy Scout Jamboree, an annual gathering of the Scouting communities in the United States.
Canadian pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen announced Tuesday on Twitter that she has canceled her scheduled appearance at the Jamboree, which will draw thousands of Scouts and their adult leaders to a campground July 15-24 in Mount Hope, W.Va.
“As an artist who believes in equality for all people, I will not be participating in the Boy Scouts of America Jamboree this summer,” Jepsen said. “I always have and always will support the LGBT community on a global level.”
The San Francisco band Train has announced that it, too, would cancel its Jamboree appearance unless the Boy Scouts’ membership policy that excludes openly gay youths and Scoutmasters is changed.
Deron Smith, a spokesman at BSA’s Irving headquarters, declined to say whether Jepsen and Train would be replaced as the Jamboree’s musical headliners.

“We appreciate everyone’s right to express an opinion and remain focused on delivering a great Jamboree program for our Scouts,” Smith said.
Jepsen, 27, is best known for her bouncy single “Call Me Maybe,” which topped the pop charts in 2012. With worldwide sales of more than 12.5 million copies, it’s one of the most popular digital singles ever.
She canceled after Eagle Scout Derek Nance, who is gay, started a petition drive on the website change.org, calling on the musical artists to disassociate themselves from the Boy Scouts and their discriminatory practices. Nance did not come out until after he had attained his Eagle rank, the highest in Scouting.
Rich Ferraro, a spokesman for the Gay/Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, commended the musicians. Their actions “not only send the right message to the BSA, but remind LGBT young people that they are supported and accepted,” he said.
GLAAD and other advocacy groups are also calling on the National Geographic Channel to end its relationship with the BSA. The cable channel, a spinoff from the venerable magazine, is airing a reality series called Are You Tougher Than a Boy Scout? Those groups say the show is little more than free advertising for the Scouts.
The Scouts’ ban on gays, while politically charged, is legal, according to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2000, the justices ruled 5-4 that the Boy Scouts of America, a private organization, did not have to reinstate a Scout leader who was expelled after publicly disclosing his homosexuality.

Scouting seeks to instill its values in young people, the court noted, and the organization has a constitutionally protected right to deem homosexuality inconsistent with those values.
Over the past year, BSA’s leaders have lurched to and fro as they’ve negotiated their way through the controversy. Last summer, after a review, they reaffirmed the anti-gay membership policy. That led GLAAD and others to call on corporations and the United Way to withdraw financial support for the Boy Scouts.
Then, in January, BSA’s Irving headquarters announced that the leadership would review the policy once again — only to announce a few days later that no action would be taken before a national meeting in May.

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[Kellie]

You go girl!