Posted on 09/25/2005 11:02:20 AM PDT by Jacob Kell
A coalition of homosexual activists and atheists plan to march on a Boy Scout camp in San Diego next month demanding the organization open its membership and leadership to them.
The group Scouting For All plans to march and rally at a Boy Scout camp Oct. 9.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
Billy Dale was the poster child for this movement. Almost EVERY story omitted what happened. Billy Dale (not his birth name) was an eagle scout. He continued to be a leader in his troop. He went off to college and had a torrid affair with an older man. He wrote about it in the college paper as an "it's wonderful to have an affair with an older man", human interest story.
The troop reacted appropriately, and banned him from being in a leadership role. He sued and they won.
The real question is where does the money to take a slam dunk case like this to the supreme court, knowing they were going to lose?
ACLU is rather faceless. Tides foundation is not. Kerry Heinz are both far leftist radicals that launder money to fund these groups.
Of course JF Kerry's Brother in Law made a billion dollars worth of land contracts right after we normalized relations with Viet Nam.
Not related, sorry.
DK
You don't have to be gay or an atheist to belong to Scouting for All. It's founding premise is to persuade the BSA (via public pressure, they don't get involved in lawsuits) to change its membership policies.
Thanks Ron. I was not aware that any "real" research is done when one applies. I know that we gave references, but was not aware of references being called. Of course as an Eagle, I never thought they needed to do research on me, but maybe they did. (The FBI background investigation I needed for my job was probably more complete.)
As of April 1 of this year, the BSA has hired a company whose name I forget ("Check" something, I think) to run a nationwide check on every leader who files a Adult Application. That includes currently registered leaders who are switching to a new position (e.g., from Webelos Den Leader to Assistant Scoutmaster). If you show up with a conviction anywhere in the U.S., there should be a hit, and then it depends on what your conviction was for.
RonF, you are to be commended for your service to the Scouts, thanks. In retirement now, and on the road, my main support will likely be financial. (Past Eagle, past Asst SM and father of an Eagle.)
Thanks. I appreciate yours as well. It's been an interesting trip for me. I was in as a youth from Bobcat to Life. Summer Camp staff (Camp Child in Buzzards Bay, MA and Owasippe Scout Reservation in Whitehall, MI), high adventure canoe trip (Matagamon Canoe Base, ME), OA, PL, SPL, JASM, etc. I left Scouting as a youth when I came back from college with my hair down my neck some and got pulled aside by my Scoutmaster and Committee Chair and was told that I looked like a pimp (when I tell our current Scouts this, I have to tell them that at the time, that was an insult, not a compliment). They seemed kind of mad, as if they didn't want me around, so I took the hint.
Fast forward to when my son became Cub age. My wife took him to the round-up, came home (I was speaking at a professional society meeting), and told me that the Pack needed a Cubmaster and that her relating of my Scouting career had piqued the unit committee's interest. I became Cubmaster. Then Scoutmaster, starting up a Troop when my son's Webelos den graduated. That was about 13 years ago. When my son graduated, I stepped down to ASM and promptly got recruited to become District Commissioner. I'm also still on the Pack Committee and am a not-particularly active Associate Advisor for a Venture Crew that went to Japan on a cultural exchange. So I have a few uniforms hanging in my closet, and I'm still going on campouts with the Troop (this last weekend, in fact) and taking Scouts on high adventure canoe trips into Canada.
Heck, if I don't do this my wife will expect me to work around the house!
You get that too? But yes, it was the same for me. I was a high school teacher when my son's cubmaster announced that he was retiring and I was asked to take over. Cubs was not as much fun for me, but I did it until my son moved across the Webelos bridge. (In my day it was Wolf, Bear, Lion , Scout BTW) Once in the scouts, my son broke his leg the first camping trip -- playing capture the flag in the dark of course --. But he healed and stuck it out. We had a lot of good leaders and everyone pitched in. But when he graduated from High School (by this time I was back in an engineering job) we sold the house and my wife and I hit the road. I have no doubt my son (now graduating from AU) will give back to the organization as well.
Homosexual Agenda Ping.
More on the nastiness that is in San Diego.
Freepmail me and DirtyHarryY2K if you want on/off this pinglist.
Here's another article about the same event/topic:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1491796/posts?page=31#31
Thanks for the link. Don't worry about this too much. I already copied it off to some major funders of the Scouts who AREN'T going to be happy campers about this ;)
Good for you!
News like this needs to be spread far and wide. Light needs to be shone on the darkness.
"Isn't illegal to harrass people for exercising their Constitutional rights?"
Yes it is, however these people and the courts conveniently forget, every time, that Religion is also protected as a class in hate crimes laws, as well as being in the first amendment.
I'll put it another way.
First a short anecdote-- when I was a teenager, and a scout, one of my good friends who was not a scout and didn't understand scouting said to me in a accusatory tone: "the Boy Scouts are just a paramilitary group". At first I was revulsed, because I knew he intended it as an insult. But the more I thought about it, he was of course right. And furthermore, it is something to be proud of! Scouts teach survival skills, leadership, self-responsibility, self-discipline; they wear paramilitary uniforms, they salute, they take an oath, they play "capture the flag", they utilize rank and chains-of-command, etc.
The Boy Scouts is about making "boys" into "men" through mentorship and the teaching of essential masculine and leadership skills-- and what could be more masculine, what institution encourages and rewards leadership more than the U.S. military?
So what the ungodly atheist/gay alliance desires is not to form their own scouting organization, because they are opposed to, or are uninterested in, the core values of Scouting. What they want is to be accepted as equals in society; and the only way they can achieve this as their end-goal is to tear down, from within, the most valued and sacred institutions that morally oppose their behaviors and/or character-- churches and scouting being two of them. They have already partially succeeded with the military (thanks to Clinton) and the Lutheran church.
I can't think of any two finer institutions than Scouting or the U.S. military. I hope I can do as much for them as they did for me.
zipper
Class of Eagles '74; Lt Col USAF/ANG/AFR (retired)
One group consists of parents who are gay themselves or that have kids who are gay that want the advantages of Scouting for their kids and want to participate in Scouting with them. Many of these parents were Scouts themselves. I have some sympathy for this, as their motivation is to get the Scouting program for their kids.
The other group sees Scouting as a means to an end; by having "avowed" homosexuals able to join Scouting, it helps to normalize homosexuality in American culture. I have no sympathy for this, even as I have no sympathy for people who desire to use Scouting for any other self-gratifying end. I don't think they intend to destroy Scouting, but I do think that they don't care whether or not it does. The idea is that it is paramount that homosexuality be accepted across the board, and if something can't survive that then it shouldn't survive.
Not true. The BSA offers 3 shooting sports merit badges; Archery, Rifle Shooting, and Shotgun Shooting. The Rifle Shooting merit badge can be obtained using either a standard .22 rifle, an air rifle, or a black-powder muzzle loading rifle (actually, they usually use Pyrodex). The Marksmanship MB went away when Shotgun Shooting was created, but Rifle Shooting took it's place.
Yes, when I asked why they don't form their own group, it was a rhetorical question. I know they will never form a group with the principles they espouse because they would not be able to accept the almost total lack of sign ups to a homosexual - atheist organization.
And yes the Boy Scouts is a paramilitary organization, from its start in the UK it has been a pre-military organization and to this day, Eagle scouts are recognized by the Army with an immediate rank advancement upon enlisting.
Cool........Thanks for the update !
http://mercerarea-bsa.org/shooting/
Eagles don't get a military pay grade advancement until they successfully complete basic training, at which point they progress from an E-1 to an E-3. They only get that if they make sure the recruiting officer marks it on their paperwork as part of their enlistment process. And there are numerous other criteria that can qualify you for that advancement, including two years of college and attainment of the Gold Award in the Girl Scouts. I don't think anyone is calling the Girl Scouts a paramilitary organization. The BSA is not a paramilitary organization. There are certainly skills taught that are useful in a military setting, but they are not taught in a military context, nor is there an emphasis on military skills.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.