The Program

Richard was at an impasse. He was on the board of directors for a youth program that spanned the

entire United States. Boys and girls between the ages of $7$ and $21$ participated in this achievement

program that ultimately had them earning the title $$Falcon$.$ To earn this title, they had to devote years

of service to humanity. There were $2\mathrm{.}5$ million youth participating in the program and it was run by

almost $1$ million volunteers of which Richard was one. The problem that Richard was pondering was one

that no matter what Richard decided, would result in the complete destruction of the program.

Several months ago, a far western coastal state had passed a law that said that the program must

include LGBT leaders in instructing the youth. The program had challenged the law and lost in a court of

that state. Now lawsuits were looming from dozens of other states to force the same verdict. Richard

was at peace with what was happening. His nephew was part of the LGBT community and he had even

marched in several pride parades with him. In his heart he felt that the country needed more sympathy

and love towards people that identified as LGBT$.$

On the flip side was the fact that $85\%$ of the program$$s funding and volunteers came from Christian

sources. By and large these Christian sources were accepting of children who wanted to enter their

groups and identified as LGBT$,$ and welcomed them with open arms. What they were united on

however, was that they would not be forced to replace their volunteer leaders with leaders who were

openly LGBT$.$ Their main fear was that they had vetted their own leaders and that they would have no

control over who the replacements were or what their values entailed. The court ruling had stated that

effective immediately, the board of directors must replace $10\%$ of the leaders with LGBT candidates.

Richard$$s conundrum was this: if he voted against the court$$s ruling, then the program would be

inundated with lawsuits and eventually fail financially under the onslaught of litigation. There were

already $21$ lawsuits from other states and he could read the writing on the wall. The program could

probably hang on for $2$ more years at most. On the other side, he could vote to enforce the ruling

country wide and begin to replace volunteer leaders. This would be equally if not more devastating. The

finance department had reached out to groups and they estimated that $60\%$ of the groups country wide

would shut down immediately. Another $25\%$ would continue their financial support for $1$ year but stop

meeting with the kids as a group.

Richard had gotten into this for the kids, and either choice he made would hurt them. Some of them had

put $13$ years of hard work and service to humanity into gaining their falcon and would not be able to do

so$.$ He wondered if the people who started the suit in the western state had done so for a humanitarian

reason, or if they even cared that they had initiated the downfall of a program that had done so much

good for mankind.

Determine the facts. $($the ones relevant to the ethical issue$)$

Identify the ethical issues involved.

Identify stakeholders and consider the situation from their point of view.

Identify available alternatives.

Compare the alternatives based on:

Consequences for each stakeholder

Duties, Rights, and Principles

Implications for personal integrity and character

Make a decision. $($what should happen?$)$