Last Tuesday The Boy Scouts of America decided to uphold a previous policy to exclude openly gay individuals (young and old) from becoming scouts and/or leaders. News story.
It is a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" situation. So there will be no routing out of the gays... or at least that is what has been reported.
Being a homosexual, most people would assume that I would be incensed by this. But you know what? I'm really not. I don't see how an organization that wishes to decide who it has as members is so bad. It is an organization. Their party. They get to invite who they want. Just like not allowing Jews in the Country Club... their loss.
I really don't wish for anyone to insist that we allow anti-gay right-wing Christian Fundamentalists into gay groups. Why should I care about who they allow into theirs? (and no, I'm not calling the BSA right-wing Christian Fundamentalists... just an example... although, if the shoe fits...)
Do I like the basis of their distrust of gay men? No. I suppose that deep in the backs of their filthy little minds they are assuming that every gay man has a secret desire to pop a Boy Scout. This would of course not be a good thing. But if I'm not mistaken, the great majority of pedophiles are actually straight men, leading a straight life.
Note that the Girl Scouts of the USA has no such rules. They allow boys and even transgenders within their ranks... leaders and scouts. Perhaps they have more effectively espoused the idea of being a good Samaritan and standing up for others.
Then there is always the possibility that little Johnny Eagle Scout would like to teach his fellow scouts a few extra tricks, because you see the BSA is suggesting that a gay scout would be a bad thing too. Quite possibly so. But then my entire family was quite active in the Scouts. And Gentle Reader, I can tell you that in a darkened tent, the kid on kid non-sexual tricks have the possibility to be just as (or indeed more) damaging than a circle jerk or whatever else could happen.
In the end I'm pretty ambivalent, simply not caring about the situation as much as the majority of my queer brothers and sisters. In fact, just like the American military, I assume it is only a matter of time before a change. It is a club, let them have their rules.
It would however be nice to have a Gay Scouts of America as mentioned in the article comments... I just don't see it happening any time soon.
(edit)
And the next day I ran across this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/opinion/scoutings-gay-founder.html
Speculation that the founder of the Boy Scouts was indeed gay himself.
(edit)
And the next day I ran across this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/opinion/scoutings-gay-founder.html
Speculation that the founder of the Boy Scouts was indeed gay himself.
2 comments:
I'm OK with the boy scouts discriminating...
Unless they take advantage of anything that's been funded by taxpayer dollars, like, say, using a school, or a community recreation center.
And, yes, I'm opposed to churches and other private organizations using publicly funded facilities if they discriminate against potential members...
Yeah Adam, I'm with you. But the fact that most of the scout meetings are at churches is probably the sticking point for the organisation. At least it is a good cover. Because as the post says, the Girl Scouts don't seem to be afraid of being the gayz even though they meet in many of those same places.
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