On July 17th, 2012 the Boy Scouts of America governing body released a statement regarding their position on gay & lesbian adults participating actively in the organization. In essence they've shot themselves in the foot, while punching themselves in the throat at the same time. An impressive and moronic move if there ever was one.
Simply put, the BSA is actively prohibiting gays & lesbians from leadership roles. Period. End of message. I had to re-read their press release several times to ensure that I was really understanding the magnitude of their blunder.
I needed to make sure their were no further provisions against Negroes, Jews, Orientals and Papists (or "mackerel snappers" as we were called in the South while I was growing up).
I've been actively involved in Scouting as leader for several years and was a Boy Scout myself in my youth. This ruling is against everything a decent Scout leader tries to instill in the boys. I sat my 11 year old son down and explained what the BSA had done. Even he understood immediately the negative message they're sending to the millions of boys in the program.
He summed it up more eloquently than I ever could with a single observation. "Well, that's stupid."
And he's right. I sent the following letter to both our local Troop where my son was a participant as well as the national headquarters of the BSA.
If they change their viewpoint, I'll consider letting my son back into the program. But until then I'm not interested in supporting such a backwards organization.
EOR (End O' Rant)
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