Posted on 04/04/2009 12:49:40 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Because of the Boy Scouts of America's policy prohibiting gays from becoming leaders, I vowed as an idealistic new parent a decade ago to never let my children participate in the organization. The discrimination went against all that I planned to teach my sons about equality and social justice.
I am now the mom of three scouts and the wife of a den leader.
Months after my oldest son transformed into a sullen pre-teenager not interested in soccer and baseball or anything else, he heard some kids talking about camping out with the scouts on a real battleship. He enthusiastically declared that he wanted to join.
So there I was, deciding between personal convictions and my son's best interests. He'd make friends, learn responsibility, gain an appreciation for nature — it was all good. Except for the part about discrimination.
What if your child attended a private school that was engaging in discriminatory hiring or admissions practices? Just like a private school, the BSA is a voluntary, private organization. I am now keenly aware of this after talking with both local and national leaders of the scouts.
"We're a private, voluntary organization," Harry Pokorny, executive director of the Connecticut Rivers Council of the Boy Scouts, said at least four times during a recent interview in his East Hartford office. "Nobody is forced to be a member of our organization."
The sentiment was repeated by Deron Smith, the BSA's national spokesman, based in Texas.
The scouts really don't belong to an executive board made up of men who make up rules; the scouts are the kids. My kids do not agree with the policy on gays; the oldest says it is "like racism, or when they didn't let women vote."
Pokorny said that the 2002 resolution — stating that "the BSA values cannot be subject to local option choices" regarding choosing leaders — has nothing to do with fears of pedophilia. Well, that's good, I guess, since most pedophiles live as straight men.
The fear is about providing positive role models for our youth.
We're not talking about some random guy off the street asking to take boys on a camp-out. We're talking about someone's dad, someone who is actually volunteering to corral a dozen second-graders and teach them how to tie knots and fold a flag and safely ride a bicycle.
"We reserve the right to choose people who are good examples for young people," he said. "We can't have homosexuals using the Boy Scouts as a platform to promote their lifestyle."
Hmm. Do straight folks use it as a platform to promote their lifestyle? ("My wife and I, you see, we're straight, and we do lots of straight stuff at home, and it's really cool, so you all should be straight, too.")
If a scout at some point thinks he might be gay, the scout curriculum is not set up to handle issues of sexuality. Fine. But don't kick the boy out for being gay. Worse than revoking membership is sending a confused young man the message that being gay is morally wrong.
Pokorny recalls seeing petitions asking the BSA to reconsider its policy on gay leaders and members "at almost every annual meeting."
"There's always been a lot of people who have petitioned national to change or re-evaluate the policy, but it's never gone anywhere," he said.
Smith at first said he could not recall any such petitions, but in a subsequent e-mail he wrote that there had been an instance about a decade ago in which two councils asked the BSA to review its membership policy, but that it hadn't happened since.
Yes, I get it that we don't have to join. There are alternatives, but not one with the unique qualities of the Boy Scouts. There is no alternative to writing "Eagle Scout" on a college application. If we simply refuse to join, we're turning our backs on a social injustice. We'd not only be denying our children the excellent scouting program that all boys — gay or straight — should have an opportunity to experience, we'd be turning scouting over to people who discriminate.
In its 2000 arguments to the Supreme Court, the BSA said it has the right to prohibit membership to homosexuals because they are not "morally straight" and "clean," terms appearing in the Scout Oath and Scout Law that form the BSA's central tenets. Neither principle, as Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in his dissenting argument, refers to homosexuality, as defined in the scout handbook.
Howard Menzer, national president of Scouting for All, an advocacy group aiming to change the BSA's exclusionary policies, says that if a troop wants to start a petition, it should be done as a way to inform people about this bigotry, and sent to BSA not by the troop but anonymously or individually because of the real possibility that the BSA might revoke the troop's charter.
Individuals can address their distaste for the policy by e-mailing Smith at Deron.Smith@edelman.com.
We love the scouts. We just wish they loved all of us in return.
See...that's where the problem lies. It's not healthy.
Hopefully by joining the scouts, the son won’t turn out like the parents.
Lovely person. Too bad for her boy. When he grows up, it'll either take 20 years of therapy or one bad afternoon of going postal to get over her.
Why doesn’t she start a “gay scouts” group and see what happens?
Every year at Christmas time , as Im walking into Target or Walmart or wherever, I get supreme satisfaction telling the Red Cross Santas that “Im sorry,I dont give to the Red Cross since you guys turned your back on the Boy Scouts for not allowing gays”Ill be giving donations to them.”
I get looked at like a total ass but I know Im right.
—
Who is the moron who wrote this? They are a private organization they can set their own rules....
Ah ha! There it is. It's all about getting junior a scholarship that another prospective student deserves more.
Ever since the United Way proclaimed the Boy Scouts a “Hate Group”, I have one thing to say to everyone with the mindset of the author...
EFF YOU .. and the HIGH HORSE you rode IN ON.
I’m going to follow that model. I dislike the Red Cross. If I give money, it goes to the Salvation Army.
Sure. Just as smoking in pubs is fine.
Wait..
Why how dare the Boy Scouts disdain perverse and perverted behavior. Obviously their misguided organization teaches them they have the right to disagree with the left. Pretty shocking stuff.
This reminds me to go donate to the scouts.
I have the utmost respect for an organization with such staunch leadership to remain true to the core values of itself in the face of overt and aggressive demonization.
“Mom, it’s like racism or when they didn’t want women to vote.” Sounds like he’s angling for some extra cookies!
Say you had a girl, lady, and she was in Girl Scouts and a hetero sexual male like me was a Girl Scout leader. Now, let’s edit one of your plaintive sentences...
“We’re not talking about some random guy off the street asking to take (girls) on a camp-out. We’re talking about someone’s dad, someone who is actually volunteering to corral a dozen second-graders and teach them how to tie knots and fold a flag and safely ride a bicycle.”
Gays aren’t pedophiles. Neither am I. Can I go camping with your daughter?
“most pedophiles live as straight men.”
That’s because most men are straight.
As a percentage, far more homosexual men molest children than straight men.
Speaking truth to power.
I lost a job once because I refused to make a pledge to the United Way. It was well worth it! (It wasn’t much of a job anyway and I didn’t have to endure self-hate for having donated to Planned Parenthood and ACORN whom were both beneficiaries.)
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Freedom-of-association ping!
“If a scout at some point thinks he might be gay, the scout curriculum is not set up to handle issues of sexuality. Fine. But don’t kick the boy out for being gay. Worse than revoking membership is sending a confused young man the message that being gay is morally wrong.”
I will agree on this point only. Here is a BOY who thinks he is gay. For God’s sake do not kick him out and send him to the wolves!! HELP HIM while you can. The Boy Scouts should have a program to help boys to convince them that they are NOT in fact queer. If you kick them out what will happen is that some queers and/or queer groups will get a hold of the boy and trust me......he will be a filthy disease ridden queer before it is all over.
The situation is quickly becoming irreconcilable.
The left insists, and WILL USE FORCE to make the rest of us comply with their twisted ideology,
and we’re just as adamant, AND WILL USE FORCE, to prevent them from doing so.
I'm sure her sons would have LOTS of fun at the weekend wilderness outings < /sarc off >
Homosexuality is morally wrong! Should he be lied to?
She gave herself away with that line. Obviously she has little understanding the amount work/dedication that is involved to get that Eagle Scout designation.
If he is confused, he needs to hear the truth.
Ummm.... the BSA only prohibits gay adult leaders. As to gay scouts, there are no prohibitions I am aware of, as long as the behavior doesn’t conflict with the aims of scouting. We don’t teach sexuality in any form. The writer of the article is making invalid assumptions. Funny, she never mentions that atheism is not accepted.
Cubmaster - Pack 458 San Antonio
I certainly hope so.
It’s the Boy Scouts, not the Bitch Scouts. Jeez, can’t we organize and drive these leftists out of our homeland? Send them to Eurabia where they will be happy (until they get their throats cut).
Teresa Pelham is likely not a scout mom.
The Red Cross is awful for many reasons — it’s a government-controlled money-grabbing organization that has had no end of financial scandals, and it uses its government endorsement to draw donations away from other charitable groups trying to do similar work. On the other hand, the Salvation Army is pretty cultish — they recently fired an “officer” for marrying a woman who wasn’t a member of the group; officers are only allowed to marry other officers — marrying outside the “Army” is prohibited.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,462224,00.html There are plenty of worthy causes out there, and neither the Red Cross nor the Salvation Army passes my personal test of worthiness.
As soon as the liberals get their way in a a previously functioning entity, be it the BSA or moving into a conservative town or state or taking over a democratic republic, they turn it to trash by trying to make it "better." And so many of them never make the connection. Unhappy with their own fouled nest, they seek to foul everyone else's too.
No kidding. This see-you-next-tuesday's rant is baseless because there is nothing stopping her from starting her own youth organization that can admit anyone she wishes as a member.
“Teresa Pelham is likely not a scout mom.”
She is, however, a moron.
“Sure. Just as smoking in pubs is fine.
Wait..”
Yep.. you guessed it.. in my state that made the law that dose not allow anyone to do that...
“Social justice”—has there ever been a more cryptic phrase?
Liberals always want every individual and organization to conform to their beliefs.
One of the most valuable lessons her sons will learn is to stand your ground when a group of powerful people demand that you compromise your moral beliefs.
One lesson of many that will serve them, as those lessons have served me, throughout their lifetimes.
There is nothing like going on a camp out with a lot of scouts..with one of the older boys turning out to be gay and intent of violating as many of the little guys as possible.
Scoutmasters and leaders have to follow a lot of rules in order to keep their insurance and prevent personal lawsuits.
Their organization..their rules..take it our leave it.
Go ahead a start a G-Scouts with different rules and see what it ends up being.
“It’s the Boy Scouts, not the Bitch Scouts.”
Yet another MAD TV skit waiting to be done. I bet they’d have interesting uniforms...
And that's the absolute bottom line. Activist Homosexuals can't resist being in ANY group or situation without shoving their "orientation" in everyone's face. If they kept it in their bedroom (which I'm sure many do), nobody would know the difference and all would be well. But the practicing of their lifestyle is only surpassed by their insatiable need for that lifestyle to be endorsed by everyone at all times. They wear it on their sleeve only to find those who DON'T agree, just so they can spew "HATER" with righteous indignation. That's all they want out of the BSA. They are denied that platform, so the hissy fits ensue.
BTW, My Webelo can whip the snot out of their kid any day and twice on Sunday--but he won't because the Scouts have taught him to be an upstanding citizen. What those parents are teaching their kids disgusts me.
I would be willing to bet that a situation like that would be handled quickly and firmly by a Scoutmaster.
The organization is especially valuable to single moms who wish to have a man in their son’s life. Young men need this presence and model and it is a great organization to teach the youngsters how to be a man.
One thing I have not heard fery often is how great the GSA is. There seem to be very few who trumpet the organization and there is probably a good reason for this lack of testimonies.
That's exactly what I did after 9-11.
Liberalism is a mental illness. It’s identifying with the perps instead of the real victims, identifying with perversion instead of moral rightness, identifying with unrighteousness and lies istead of truth.
There is no cure that I know of other than (real) religious awakening.
yup...
I didn’t read any evidence that the Scouts fail to love anyone. That’s a well-whipped straw man.
Disapproval of homosexuality is equated with hatred of persons. For that matter, virtually any refusal to approve of liberal socio-cultural prescriptions is said (by libs) to be motivated by “hate.” That’s supposed to end the debate. Question settled! Finis!!
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