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Next comes gay scout leaders. That didn't go well for the Catholic Church. But that's religion's fault.
The Boy Scouts of America on Thursday ended its longstanding policy of forbidding openly gay youths to participate in its activities, a landmark step its chief executive called “compassionate, caring and kind.”
The decision, which followed years of resistance and wrenching internal debate, was widely seen as a milestone for the Boy Scouts, a symbol of traditional America. More than 1,400 volunteer leaders from across the country voted, with more than 60 percent approving a measure that said no youth may be denied membership “on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.”
“I’ve waited 13 years for this,” said Matt Comer, now 27, who was forced out of his scout troop at age 14 after he started a Gay-Straight Alliance at his school. Since the fourth grade, he said Thursday, he had dreamed of becoming an Eagle Scout and was crushed when he was denied the chance.
“Today we finally have some justice for me and others,” he said. “But gay youths will still be told they are no longer welcome when they turn 18.”
Leaders of the conservative faction predicted that the Boy Scouts will soon be forced by lawsuits to allow openly gay leaders and accused the top leaders of ignoring the beliefs of their members.
“The fallout from this is going to be tremendous,” predicted Robert Schwarzwalder, a senior vice president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group, and a father of two scouts in Northern Virginia. “I think there will be a loss of hundreds of thousands of boys and parents.”
“This great ins ution is going to be vitiated by the intrusion of a political agenda,” he said.
Glaad, a gay rights group that has campaigned for change over the last year, said it would keep up pressure on the Boy Scouts over the leadership issue. “We’ll continue urging corporate donors and public officials to withhold their support,” said Richard Ferraro, the group’s vice president for communications.
The UPS Foundation, Merck, the Intel Foundation, and many local United Ways and city agencies have already ended financing for the scouts because its policies violated their own nondiscrimination guidelines.
For the last year, the organization whose motto is “God and Country” has been engulfed by the culture war.
The vote was a bittersweet one for David Knopp, 86, who spent much of his life in scouting as a boy, as a professional staff member and later as a volunteer with a council in Connecticut. He had tried to keep his sexual orientation a secret but one day, he said, two scout officials said, “We found out you are a sexual” and forced him out.
“I see this as a good step but with a lot of misgivings,” he said of the limited opening to gays.
Some of the most conservative parents and leaders are already thinking of what comes next.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/us...bers.html?_r=0
Next comes gay scout leaders. That didn't go well for the Catholic Church. But that's religion's fault.
jacob is probably circling the drain.
“The fallout from this is going to be tremendous,” predicted Robert Schwarzwalder, a senior vice president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group, and a father of two scouts in Northern Virginia. “I think there will be a loss of hundreds of thousands of boys and parents.”
Do they not know that there were already gay boys in the Scouts?
there's LOTS of stuff these ignorant, hate-filled, "Christian" assholes don't know (they do know how to sucker their hate-filled "Christian" followers into giving them $Ms)
With these hateful ers pulling their boys out of the Scous, the Scouts will be an improved org. They'll probably form a brain-washing, hate-filled "Christian" Scout alternative org.
It's ironic that the scouts would be anti-gay when one considers the fact that their creator was a pederast.
Last edited by Woo Bum-kon; 05-24-2013 at 12:46 AM.
Haters never miss a chance to hate out loud
Ten Right Wingers Freak Out Over Boy Scouts Policy Change
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/0...ut-boy-scouts/
Just like the Catholic Church, BSA (and probably world-wide) has permitted, harbored, protected pedophile Scout leaders for decades, appropriate result of its very weird, maybe pedophile found Lord Baden Powell.
Hilarious now that "policy" now is that gay Scouts are ok, but (openly) gay Scout leaders aren't.
lol thinkprogress. boutons youre awesome.
unintended consequences. They're not just for breakfast anymore.
Take a look at what organizations sponsor cub scout/boy scout activities with facilities, logistical support, etc.
SCALIA RESIGNS POST AS SCOUTMASTER
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who for the past forty-seven years has served as a weekend scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America, angrily resigned from that position yesterday, effective immediately.
Justice Scalia quit his post in a terse resignation letter that read, in part:
“Some of the happiest memories of my adult life have been as a scoutmaster. Huddling under blankets around the campfire, and so forth. But now, all of that has been ruined. Ruined.”
Shortly after sending the letter, Justice Scalia destroyed his scoutmaster uniform in the blazing fireplace of his Supreme Court office.
Later, he went across the hall to share his decision with his close confidant on the Court, Justice Clarence Thomas, telling him, “There’s nowhere I feel safe anymore, Clarence. The military? The N.B.A.? Nowhere.
I guess the only place I still feel safe is the Supreme Court. This is still a safe place, isn’t it?”
Justice Thomas said nothing in reply.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blog...rowitz%20(128)
My grandson is in cub scouts. I've been taking him for the last year. Today I got this email from our Cubmaster.
To Parents,
I am writing to address the issues that may come out about the vote that occurred last night. It is my fear that there will be a wide exit from the pack and surrounding (supporting) troops due to the National Council’s vote on the inclusion of openly gay members of the BSA. I would like to reiterate that as this applies to our Cub Scouts it is not very important. Our boys are between the ages of 6 and 11. That is not exactly the ages that they will know this sort of thing about themselves.
Nevertheless, I understand that some of you will have moral issues with this decision, and will feel as if you must leave.
The activities and benefits of the Scouts far outweigh the issues that will arise from this decision. What we do is give our boys something to not only look forward to every week, but also something that builds character and opens doors to activities and ideals that are not necessarily prevalent in our society today. Honor being one of the most important. Be that as it may, I will honor your decisions to do what you feel you must, but I will respectfully request that you think long and hard about the consequences of this decision.
What will the effects of your decision have on your children? Rather than camping or participating in team building exercises, will they play video games? Will they seem bored and distant? It is a hard decision to make as a parent, I understand that.
From my perspective, scouts have always been a special place for boys who don’t necessarily fit in in any other place. Maybe they aren’t good at sports, maybe they don’t like band, maybe they just want to be themselves and do the things that we do, such as camping, building things, trying things, or just hanging out with friends. We show no animosity to a boy because of his differences, in fact we celebrate those differences and try to utilize the child’s strengths and give them the self-confidence to be themselves. We try to strengthen them as leaders in a time when that trait is becoming less and less prevalent.
Leaders, good young men, kind and gentle people, fantastic character, these are the things we are trying to do with our boys. It is what the organization was created to accomplish. It is not about the sexual orientation of a pre-teen boy; that has no business in our conversations nor in our thoughts when we look at a young man and judge them. And judging them is exactly what we are doing, either way the vote went, that is what is going on. Judge the character, not the sexual orientation.
Alas, there will be difficulties, and there will be questions. I do not have all the answers, but I will work to get them. There is a very good possibility that we will lose our charter and that will bring its own challenges. We either stand and succeed as one, or fail individually.
Well I hope he was able to convince himself with that
So now the Boy Scouts will admit 8 yr old sexuals?
This was from a cub scoutmaster, knucklehead. lol
Also, I though this statement was pretty spot on. "Leaders, good young men, kind and gentle people, fantastic character, these are the things we are trying to do with our boys. It is what the organization was created to accomplish. It is not about the sexual orientation of a pre-teen boy; that has no business in our conversations nor in our thoughts when we look at a young man and judge them. And judging them is exactly what we are doing, either way the vote went, that is what is going on. Judge the character, not the sexual orientation."
Cub Scouts, too, no?
Penis snake bite venom extraction merit badge soon to come, no doubt.
Damn slippery slopes.
I wish I were gay, no kids to put up with, no woman telling me what to do, I could sleep in.
Kind of disturbing.
This letter seems oddly mature for either side of this debate.
Did you cut off the last paragraph that said, in part, that "we aren't going to let these doughnut hole punchers change our venerated traditions...."
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