WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.-Years ago Carole Benowitz thought she had a real Scouting family-she was a Cub Scout troop leader, her father had a coveted Silver Beaver Scouting award, and her son was a Scout.

Her gay son.

Tonight, Benowitz and others will ask the Palm Beach County School Board to prohibit Boy Scouts from using public schools for recruitment and meetings because the Scouts exclude gays from their troops.

“They’re using public property to discriminate, and this should not be allowed,” said Benowitz, Gulf Coast coordinator for PFLAG, an organization of parents of gay and lesbian children. “Gay kids should have the same rights as other children.”

This doesn’t mean the Boy Scouts can’t use the schools, but the troops should be charged the regular $10-an-hour rental fee, she said.

“We can’t appear to be supporting them,” she said. “If we do, we’re violating a policy that the school board adopted.”