L.A. City Council cutting ties with Boy Scouts of America

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday moved to end its relationship with the Boy Scouts of America because the organization discriminates based on homosexuality.

The council directed all of the city's departments to review contracts with the Boy Scouts and ordered an audit of those contracts to ensure they comply with a nondiscrimination clause. The contract audits are due within 90 days.

Council members also want the Los Angeles Police Department to eliminate its Explorers program, a police cadet training program for young people that is affiliated with the Boy Scouts. Council members would like the police department to create its own cadet program within three months.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that the Boy Scouts can legally exclude gays. Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg supported severing the ties with the youth organization and noted that police departments in San Diego, Chicago and Tempe, Ariz., have taken similar action.

Goldberg was backed by Councilman Mike Feuer, who said the city doesn't work with organizations that discriminate.

''We don't have a choice, legally,'' he said. ''Both the spirit and the content of existing city law is very clear. The city shouldn't participate in a discriminatory practice or policy.''

Boy Scout officials have said the Explorer program is run through a subsidiary, Learning for Life, that does not have a policy of discrimination.