Scouting for All Honors Margaret Downey With Its Fran Crawford Rainbow Award
Scouting for All announces that Margaret Downey of Chester County PA,
Founder and President of Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia
(FSGP) and the Anti-Discrimination Support Network (ASDN) is the
recipient of the 2004 Fran Crawford Volunteer of the Year Rainbow Award.
Barry C. Lawrence of the Scouting for All Board of Directors, and Lori
Martin, Scouting for All State Director of Pennsylvania/Northeastern
Region Spokesperson, will present Ms. Downey with the award on Friday
evening, June 11, 2004, at a celebration at the White Dog Cafe in
Philadelphia.
Those previously honored with the Scouting for All Fran Crawford
Volunteer of the Year Rainbow Award include humanist and peace activist
Fran Crawford of Sonoma County CA; Eagle Scout Scott Pusillo; Eagle
Scout Mike Montalvo; New York City police officer Edgar Rodriguez; the
Chartering Organization, Officers, and Parents Committee of Pack 30, Boy
Scouts of America, Berkeley CA; and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA).
Ms. Downey has been active in opposing religious and sexual-orientation
discrimination by Boy Scouts of America (BSA) since December 1991, when
she filed a discrimination case against BSA through the Human Relations
Commission of Pennsylvania. After nearly eight years she lost her case
against BSA. In the U.S. Supreme Court case James Dale v. Boy Scouts of
America(June 2000), BSA declared itself "private" to avoid the question
of open membership, thus ending her appeal. Undeterred, she has
continued her tireless quest to expose the harmful effects BSA
discrimination has on vulnerable boys and their families, representing
the issue before the United Nations and other government entities,
writing nationally published articles on the matter, welcoming into her
home various groups and individuals seeking to change BSA's membership
policy, and acting to raise consciousness of the harmful effects of this
policy on children in the Philadelphia area. In addition, her efforts
through ADSN are responsible for convincing movie producer Steven
Speilberg to disassociate himself from BSA.
Ms. Downey credits the multicultural family she grew up in with sparking
her lifelong concern with prejudice and her desire to end any and all
discrimination against any and all peoples of the world. She is an
active feminist, an advocate for children's health, and an ardent
proponent of the Jeffersonian wall of church/state separation. A
free-lance journalist, she has authored city proclamations honoring the
memory of Thomas Paine in Philadelphia, Lancaster, and York, PA; as well
as Cherry Hill NJ and Garden Grove CA.
As ADSN's founder and president, since 1995 Ms. Downey has represented
the interest of the nontheist community at several United Nations
conferences and spoke at the United Nations Freedom of Religion and
Belief meeting in New York City. She attended the 2001 United Nations
Freedom of Religion and Belief Conference in Madrid, Spain. She is a
past board member of the American Humanist Association, and a current
board member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, The Humanist
Institute, the Thomas Paine National Historical Association, Advisory
Board Member of the Robert Green Ingersoll Museum, and the Atheist
Alliance. In 2002,she became the first "Secular Humanist Celebrant" in
Pennsylvania, performing godless weddings and naming and funeral
ceremonies. She also has been a guest speaker on National Public
Radio's Talk of the Nation and Radio Times, and has been featured on
radio programs in China, Texas, South Carolina, California, Minnesota,
Pennsylvania, Florida, and Georgia.
Scouting for All is a non-profit advocacy and educational organization
working to end discrimination in the Boy Scouts of America and promote
positive alternatives for kids.