Why, Boy Scouts? Why?
The Boys Scouts of America decided that they needed to reaffirm their position excluding gays (their word choice) from leadership and membership positions within the organization.
Really, Boy Scouts? Your hateful policies weren’t bad enough? You felt the need to reaffirm them?
I am appalled. I am disgusted. I am angry.
I am also the mother of a Cub Scout.
A Cub Scout who loves his den and loves to go camping and has wonderful, tolerant, leaders.
My Cub Scout has learned about confidence and cooking and service from scouting. I like what scouting has done for him so far.
It is infuriating because this policy assumes that all homosexuals are predators and child molesters. This simply is not true. I’m not saying that those people aren’t out there. I am saying that Jerry Sandusky was and is married to a woman. I am also saying that the vast majority of adults — straight or gay — are not interested in having sex with children. Homosexuals are not automatically pedophiles and rapists. I find it offensive that the Boy Scouts of America thinks that they are.
I don’t know what to do. I suppose I could yell and scream and pull my bewildered eight-year-old out of scouts and away from his friends, but those kids aren’t the problem. I guess I could volunteer and work my way up in the organization until I was in a position of power and I could help push for reform.
What seems wrong is that the Boy Scouts say that “focus is on reaching and serving youth to help them grow into good, strong citizens.” Well, how can we do that when we are teaching them policies of intolerance? That doesn’t make sense to me.
The Boy Scouts of America Mission:
To prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetime by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law.
Poorly done, Boy Scouts. Very poorly done.
This came in an e-mail from our Pack Leader this morning.
What is Scouting’s membership policy?
Our focus is on working together to delivery the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training.
- We teach our members to treat everyone with courtesy and respect at all times and to adamantly oppose the mistreatment of others based on any perceived difference, including sexual orientation.
- We respect everyone’s right to have and express a different opinion and adamantly oppose the mistreatment of others based on any perceived difference, including sexual orientation.
- While the BSA does not proactively inquire about the sexual orientation of employees, volunteers, or members, we do not grant membership to individuals who are open or avowed homosexuals or who engage in behavior that would become a distraction to the mission of the BSA.
- That policy allows us to remain united in our mission as an organization, and we believe it continues to be in the best interest of Scouting overall.
Well this is me expressing a different opinion and adamantly opposing the mistreatment of others based on any perceived difference, including sexual orientation.
I perceive a mistreatment of others based on sexual orientation.
I feel sick to my stomach. Just when I think that we have learned our lessons and evolved as a species, something like this happens.
I already took the time this morning to talk to my children about what the scouts have done — or really about what they have been doing all this time and instead of reversing a bad protocol restating it so we are all sure to know how intolerant they remain — and why I believe that it is wrong, and why it doesn’t matter if you are gay to straight or transgender or Christian or Jewish or Muslim or black or white or in a wheelchair. People are people. We are all the same. We are all different. It is all okay.
I don’t think yanking my son out of Cub Scouts will solve anything. I don’t want to support this organization. I don’t know the right answer.
I do know that I will do my best to teach my children tolerance and I will continue to speak out when I see this kind of injustice.
Would you pull your son out of Boy Scouts because of this policy?
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Lucky
Ugh, I’m struggling with this too. My son likes Cub Scouts too, but I’m infuriated. Maybe we (likely the vast majority of Boy Scout parents) need to figure out a way to publically repudiate this decision, and make it clear that this was NOT based on any sort of input from members.
Maybe encourage others to set up your own groups for kids and take them out camping and connect to nature?
This is the only reason my kids aren’t Boy Scouts.
We didn’t have to pull our son out – he decided on his own that the policy was unfair and chose to leave. It was heartbreaking on one level, he loves Scouting and is very proud of his accomplishments. But he decided that if other people were not allowed to join then it wasn’t fair that he could.
http://kubalak.com/2012/07/18/lost-boy-scout/
No gay agenda, just a kid who understands the golden rule.
[...] I haven’t written much here lately, but I have been busy over at Babble. I yelled about the Boy Scouts and their anti-gay policy, things that I could live without (only if it was absolutely necessary) and the best TV moms. Oh [...]
Are there any other groups similar to Boy Scouts that your son can join? Girls have Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Girls (probably others too). It would be great to see the parents of children in Boy Scouts band together and protest and boycott the Boy Scouts. The email from the pack leader is contradictory. The first 2 statements try to make them seem tolerant, but then they state, “no we’re not” in the third point. It’s so unfortunate.
Perhaps you can have an ongoing, honest dialogue about how you view this abhorent act with your son, and encourage him to come to the decision to withdraw on his own? I’m so disgusted by this…. so sad.
Of course you should pull your kids out of scouts. If this policy stated that they would not grant membership to people of african american descent would you leave your kids in? What’s the difference?
If you truly believe that it is wrong to discriminate based on sexual orientation just as wrong as it is to discriminate based on race you would not involve your child in BSA. If nothing else, pulling your child out of the organization sends a strong message to your child that discrimination is wrong. Leaving your child in sends the message that it’s “wrong” but not *that* wrong, not wrong enough to want to end your fun over.
Yes, I would absolutely pull my child out. I hope entire troops leave the organization. The only way to push for reform is to vote with your feet. You can always rejoin if they change their policy.
I suspect that this is mainly a risk avoidance maneuver – trying to protect children from possible molestation. Which leads back to the assumption that homosexual = molester, which is absolutely repugnant. I have a 3 year old that I would love to have follow in his father’s footstep’s with scouting, but this policy makes both my husband and I ill. I wonder what would happen if the Boy Scouts were confronted with an online petition from outraged parents? There are several free online petition siteshttp://www.change.org/petition . I would sign. Would others?
[...] [...]
The Boy Scouts and Chick Fil A are both clueless lately. This is the last hurdle in civil rights–take any of the statements that either organization has made and substitute “women”, “African Americans”, “Latinos”, etc in their statements and there would be a larger public outcry. Somehow they are able to hide behind religion and make people question whether our views are the correct ones.
As an individual you have your right to an opinion and freedom of speech….but when you speak for an entire company, it seems like an agenda, not an opinion.
[...] haven’t told him because we want to sit down with him and talk about why. I have talked to him about the anti-gay policies that the Boy Scouts felt the need to reiterate a fe…, and I told him why I believed that they were wrong, but since then my husband and I have talked [...]
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