Boy scouts adopt gay policy

SAN FRANCISCO Boy scouts officials In the Ban Francisco area have quietly adopted a gay policy that is more lenient than the organisation's national guidelines, reports AP

Homosexual members or leaders are opposed by the'national Boy Scouts organisation, and it has allowed gays to be expelled.

The policy of the Bay Area Council of the boy Scouts does not call for expulsion unless the Scout or leader engages in public homosexual conduct or advocacy

The new policy attempts to better define gray areas' in the national policy, said Steve Barnes, a former military man who took over Iasi year as chief executive officer of the local council.

This is a very difficult issue." Barnes said. What we've done is define where and when we d take action ... If you come Into our programme and you are interest In conduct or advocacy, then will not retain you."

National boy Scouts guidelines require would be leaders to submit to investigations including criminal background checks. Barnes said.

The revised Bay Area guidelines forbid Scout officials from investigating a member s or a leader’s sexual orientation

The boy Scouts of America does not ask prospective members about their sexual preference, nor do we check on the sexual orientation of boys who are already in scouting." the local council's policy says.

The Boy Scouts of America has always taught youth the traditional values of scouting families. Accordingly, we do not allow for the registration of members or leaders those whose public conduct or advocacy does not suggest these traditional values. the policy says.

In 1992, the United Way cut off nearly 500.000 dlrs in annual funding to seven San Francisco Bay area councils because of the Scouts anti-gay policies. Several major corporations also cut off funding.

A number of board members worked to define the policy, which was passed in an August meeting and marked confiden tial (and) not Intended for public release." The San Francisco Examiner reported on the policy Tuesday.

Van Gogh's painting fails to fetch again

PARIS Expensive fake or masterpiece, a controversial landscape possibly painted by Vincent Van Gogh failed to fetch its 32 million franc (dlrs 6.4 million) asking price Tuesday evening, reports AP

The "Jardin d’Auvers." praised by most scholars as the real thing but doubted by a single critic, tailed for the second time in four years to make it off the auction block.

Critic Jean-Marie Tasset last summer produced research showing that Jardfn" once belonged to the brother of a known copier of Van Gogh's works

The world's leading Van Gogh scholars insist — repeatedly — that Van Gogh made the small landscape In the creative frenzy leading up to his suicide in 1890

But the asking price seemed too much for the slightly ques tionable landscape.

Jacques Tajan. the French auctioneer handling the sale at the Hotel Georges V. said he hoped the government would step in and buy the painting and display it in a museum

"It would seem to me a good thing for France." he said.