SHERIFF: Can still get it right

Coeur d’Alene is moving toward a non-discrimination ordinance and I hope for speedy approval both for its symbolic value in the region and its real value in the lives of those who are the targets of discrimination. HCTFHR has long been a part of the conscience of Kootenai and this would be another step forward in their efforts but there is another job for them at the county level.

While that effort goes forward the actions of the Sheriff’s Office at the county level must not be ignored. Sheriff Ben Wolfinger is a former member of the Task Force, a former Coeur d’Alene City Council member and a longtime employee of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department. All this makes his break with the Boy Scouts even more puzzling.

The BSA has simply changed their policy to allow gay boys to be scouts. Nothing more. They are not condoning sexual behavior on the part of scouts-be they homosexual or heterosexual. How a person of Wolfinger’s experience conflates sexual orientation with the acts contemplated in Idaho’s sodomy laws is inexplicable.

Ignore for the moment that the Supreme Court has said these laws are unconstitutional and that their enforcement in Idaho is nonexistent. Ignore the fact that the prohibitions contemplated by Idaho’s laws apply to both gay and straight women and men. What could Wolfinger’s logic be in focusing on a person’s condition with no evidence of any law violation?

Does he plan that the Sheriff’s Department disavow every group that might have someone who might break a law at some time in the future? Young men are by far the most likely to commit a crime in the community. Do we round them all up simply because they are young and male? Some parents abuse and neglect their children. Should the Sheriff’s Department stop providing service to parents because some of them might break the law?

The BSA seeks to instill a range of values. Values that are important regardless of sexual orientation. While some may be offended it is only by holding heterosexual orientation to be the most important of all these values that one can reasonably argue that the BSA got it wrong when they changed their policy. Hopefully Sheriff Wolfinger reconsiders his thinking, publicly admits his mistake and renews the Sheriff Department’s relationship with BSA.

JERRY SHRINER

Coeur d’Alene