Boy Scouts Discrimination (beliefs, homosexuals, attending, America, atheist)

[Ryan2065]

Originally Posted by YmirGF

Granted I do not pay the slightest attention to this sort of thing, but I am curious. Did this anti-gay policy preceed or follow the charging of a high ranking boy scout official with child pornography? (It was in the last year or so.)

I know the policy has been in effect since the 1990's at least (I think I saw a case of someone being kicked out in 1991) so its been that way for awhile.

[Booko]

Originally Posted by YmirGF

Granted I do not pay the slightest attention to this sort of thing, but I am curious. Did this anti-gay policy preceed or follow the charging of a high ranking boy scout official with child pornography? (It was in the last year or so.)

I'm not sure when the policy was put in place, but it's been around much longer than a year. It was well in place when my son was a Cub Scout, and he's 17 now.

[YmirGF]

I think there are a few problems here. I rather suspect the BSA are a victums of their own success. Now, in theory, their mission statement would cover their aims and goal perfectly. It seems a bit odd for them to be forced to accept things that run counter to that mission statement. Folks who do not like the statement are certainly welcome to start their own group. Am I missing something?

[Scuba Pete]

Originally Posted by MaddLlama

This may be true, but it is also true that homsoexuals are targeted. I have heard of several cases of scout masters being let go for being gay, when they had never mentioned anything about it during anything having to do with the BSA.

The only two cases that -I- am aware of are where both a boy and a leader wanted to create a stage for their position on homosexuality. Unfortunately, there have been a few over the years that have been targeted by narrow minded individuals. HOWEVER, the BSA's real intent is to not become a political football over sexuality.

[Scuba Pete]

Originally Posted by nutshell

No one seems to have a problem with the fact that the BOY Scouts don't allow girls in the group

Venture Scouts was developed just for this. My unit (The Mighty ScubaDucks) is mostly female. Out of 24 members last year, 22 were female. They had a blast doing what they were not allowed to do in the GSA.

[Booko]

Originally Posted by YmirGF

I think there are a few problems here. I rather suspect the BSA are a victums of their own success. Now, in theory, their mission statement would cover their aims and goal perfectly. It seems a bit odd for them to be forced to accept things that run counter to that mission statement. Folks who do not like the statement are certainly welcome to start their own group. Am I missing something?

Possibly that someone wants to force them to accept something?

I would not like to see them legally forced to do anything of the sort. I think in time they will come around anyway.

It's a bit tough to justify the policy when the Girl Scouts stands there as proof that their limitations are unnecessary to their mission.

[Scuba Pete]

Originally Posted by MaddLlama

But, they're not. They're using the tax money I pay every year to teach children that gay men are not able to be good citizens.

Wow, is this ever way off base. Gay men are never brought up. Heterosexual men are not brought up. As for tax payer money, the only time that I have seen any tax payer money used is in the BSA's Learning for Life program which is an outreach to "at risk" kids (mostly urban). These kids pay NOTHING to have a Scout Troop with all the weekend campouts (including food), events and even a full week at Summer camp. Local governments (not National) contribute less than %10 for this, with the other %90+ coming from private sources. We just had an auction where I donated 6 scuba classes (all inclusive) to be auctioned off to raise money for this project.

The real issue is that some are way willing to paint all of the BSA with the broad brush of homophobia and are just as guilty of being as biased as they make the BSA out to be. The Learning for Life program attempts to break these young men and women OUT of their hostile environments and into one that will help them to develop a strong sense of community and character.

[nutshell]

Originally Posted by MaddLlama

Because girls can join the GIRL Scouts. And the GIRL scouts don't seem to have a problem with lesbians, or atheists. Everyone would have the opportunity to be a scout of some kind if the BSA officials weren't bigoted.

And, for the record, the BSA does allow girls. It's called Venturing.

The BSA and Girl Scouts are mostly unrelated.

And Venturing is much different than traditional Boy Scouts.