As this article discusses, on Wednesday “three leaders of the LDS Church stood alongside members of the LGBT rights group Equality Utah and state lawmakers to unveil” legislation that would prohibit discrimination in employment and housing based on “sexual orientation or gender identity” while also providing some protection for religious freedom. Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin celebrated the introduction of the legislation as an “extraordinary moment” and hailed the Mormon church’s “desire … to work toward common ground” as “a model for other faith traditions here in the United States.”

I’ll withhold judgment on the merits of the proposed legislation, but I do find it noteworthy that the “common ground” being celebrated includes an exemption for the Boy Scouts (as well as for religious organizations). In other words, the legislation would protect the ability of the Boy Scouts to maintain its policy against leaders who are “open or avowed homosexuals.”

I recognize, of course, that the Human Rights Campaign and other gay-rights groups would rather not have the exemption for the Boy Scouts. But the fact that they nonetheless celebrate legislation that includes it would seem to show that they recognize that the exemption is defensible.

All the more reason for the California supreme court to reconsider its extreme decision to bar state judges from belonging to the Boy Scouts.