EDITORIAL THE SCOUTS' FATE.

THE city of Los Angeles has plenty of problems relating to its youth - drugs, crime, failing schools, illegitimacy - but the Boy Scouts of America isn't one of them.

Yet of all the dangers confronting young Angelenos, City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg has decided to wage war on the Scouts.

Goldberg has urged the Council to sever all ties with the BSA and prohibit the group from using free public meeting rooms.

At issue is the BSA's internal policies, which require that Scouts believe in God and prohibit homosexuals from becoming Scoutmasters.

Goldberg, a lesbian, is outraged by the Scouts' refusal to bow to public pressure and renounce these policies. She complains that the organization went ``all the way to the Supreme Court to defend itself.''

But in her outrage, Goldberg misses the bigger point. The Scouts not only went to the Supreme Court, they won. The court ruled that, as a private organization, the BSA has a right to set its own rules.

The Boy Scouts' policies may be controversial, even objectionable to some, but bowing to Goldberg's rigid political orthodoxy should not become the standard for doing business with the city of Los Angeles.

As long as the Scouts are acting within the bounds of the Constitution and the law, the only question that should concern the City Council is: Are they a net asset to the youth of Los Angeles?

Clearly, the answer is yes.

Goldberg herself admits that Scouting programs ``do great good for many young people.''

The BSA's internal policies are its own business - the Council's should be providing as many services as possible to the city's youth.

And even beyond that is a very important point: Goldberg's intolerance for people whose values are different than hers is just as destructive to a healthy society as those who are intolerant of her values.

Let's give each other a little room to be different while we redouble our efforts to make the world a better place for all.