NARTH, PFOX, the CWA — these folk all find the Boy Scouts among their issues.
Well, the San Diego chapter of Scouting For All held its annual rally Sunday. One of the main reason’s for the Rally is that the Boy Scout’s Camp Balboa is on City of San Diego parkland (Balboa Park) — The Boy Scouts use public land while discriminating against LGBT and non-thiest youth, parents, and leaders. Stories on the Boy Scouts continuing in a presence in Camp Balboa are here and here.
Protesters — like me — object to an organization that discriminates against LGBT and non-theist children/parents/leaders receiving a taxpayer subsidized lease on city land. The lease is for $1 a year.
On a personal level why — my oldest son is an Eagle Scout. If his Boy Scout Troop had known I was transgender…well, y’all can do the math on what might have happened. And, at Sunday’s Scouting for All Rally my very good friend Brenda Watson turned in her Eagle Badge. An Egale Scout named “Brenda?” you might say? Well, she’s a transgender Eagle Scout. Several local television stations covered her turning in her badge (including here — one has to turn off one’s Norton Anti-spam/Ad Blocking to view it). Brenda isn’t (as well as other LGBT and non-theist people aren’t) welcome in the Boy Scouts.
XGW has posted a number of comments relating to the Boy Scouts — here and here are two of them.
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On the other side of the issue of LGBT/non-theists and the Boy Scouts, in an argument by scenario, Deroy Murdock ties together people that oppose Boy Scouts’ subsidized lease with support for NAMBLA. (Tying together LGBT people with pedophiles/pederasts has been a familiar sounding theme since long before the Foley Scandal broke.)
The CWA has comments here and here. Excerpt from the first piece :
There is probably a psychological distinction between true pedophilia (sexual attraction to prepubescent boys) and homosexuality. However, the molestation cases in which scouts (and some Catholic clergy) have been involved are really homosexual. The age of puberty is falling, and most boys involved in Scouts are sexually mature physically but not emotionally. Many 15-year-olds are 6-foot-2, have deep voices, and look like they could be twenty. Even if a homosexual scoutmaster were well intentioned, the constant association with boys would be a temptation for him.
One can read what NARTH has posted on their website about LGBT people and The Boy Scouts here and here. In More NARTH Notes (third story on the webpage) it’s noted that NARTH submitted a brief to the Supreme Court in the significant Boy Scouts of America v. Dale.
PFOX has comments with Boy Scouts mentioned here and here.
Exodus International mentions the Boy Scouts on their website here and here.
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When it comes to the Boy Scouts, LGBT people, and ex-gay apologists, it doesn’t seem like the issues should be so related. And yet, the issues seem to be mighty related — Heck, Exodus International (via Nancy Brown) included within the list of what is part of the homosexual agenda (as outlined in the 1993 Gay Pride March on Washington Demands) as “An end to discrimination based on sexual orientation in all programs of the Boy Scouts.”
Related issues or not, if the Boy Scouts’ Camp Balboa is still on City of San Diego parkland this time next year, I’ll be back protesting. It bothers me that the children of LGBT and non-theist parents aren’t welcome in the Boy Scouts, and it bothers me that my tax dollars subsidize that discrimination.
What I find interesting is that more and more it seems that conservatives are identifying themselves by one sole distinguishing characteristic: they aren’t gay.
The only difference between those allowed by the Ancient Order of Hibernians to march in the St. Patricks parade and those excluded are not that they be Irish or Catholic, simply that they not be gay. A politician could be, say, a Polish Jew or a German Lutheran and be welcome. But Catholic Irish are not welcome if they’re gay.
When Eagle Scout Dale was kicked out of the Scouts, it was not because he opposed their values of fairness, decency, or good tent building skills. Just that he’s gay.
When the Arabic linguists were expelled from the military it was not because they opposed the war in Iraq or because they were physically unfit, just that they were gay.
Over and over they are proving that it isn’t the “liberal homosexual activists” that they really oppose. It is people completely indistinguishable from themselves other than one characteristic.
The scouts, the Hibernians, the military, and the churches are not discriminating against the club kid who wants to have fuchia hair and make art. He’s not interested in those things. Conservative, Republican, Christian, pro-defense, patriotic, those are the adjectives that best descibe the gay people that are told they have to go away because they aren’t good enough. It doesn’t matter how strong, how smart, how dedicated, how physically and mentally fit, or how family oriented. All that matters is that you not be gay!
The BSA got engulfed by the Mormans, which is why they suddenly got all intolerant.
Back in the 60s when I was a Scout, I never gave it a thought that I should not be a Scout after I told a friend at the age of 14 that I was a ‘homosexual.’ In farm country you never heard the word gay, and strangely enough there was at least one other kid who was gay in our troop.
Years later when I was just trying to be sorta asexual and internally fighting the idea that I couldn’t be a queer (still didn’t know that word gay!), the head of the committee from our church for our Scout Troop asked me to be an interim Scoutmaster before I went off to another state for college. Well, I didn’t want to, but I had nothing better to do. I even ran a summer camp for our troop (our council had some problems). I gotta tell you not one of those snot-nosed kids ever looked good to me.
Good for you and Brenda, Autumn… keep up the good fight.
I am pastor of a church that (unfortunately, for now) sponsors Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. It’s the oldest (and was once the largest) troop in the city. Now it’s just a ragtag group trying to stay afloat in a declining community that desperately needs good adult role models. Despite being the pastor of the sponsoring church, I am forbidden by Scout law to give any form of leadership to the group. I can’t even lead the ‘God and Country’ program traditionally led by clergy (Scout leaders wanted me to do so ‘under the table’, but I refused to do so.) Some of these kids attend our Sunday School. I interact with them constantly, but am not allowed to do so on Thursday nights. The irony, of course is that only OUT gay men are forbidden in leadership. CLOSETED gay men – including the admittedly creepy guy who leads our troop – are welcome.
What is wrong with this picture?
Both the Mormons and the Methodists heavily influence the BSA. They are so intertwined that if any easing of rules with regards to homos and the scouts you will find both Churches withdrawing funding…which is considerable. This would reduce the BSA into a heap of worthless merit badges and sashes.
The only hope is to change the hearts of the Mormons and the Methodists which is hardly likely. So, don’t waste your time.
The only alternative is to organize a club without the prejudices but then you will find support only from parents who are gay themselves. Gay-aware/friendly parents are so rare I doubt there will be any chance such a BSA-type club being successful.
Until the hearts and minds of most people are changed, there will never be a homo-friendly BSA or anything similar.
I learned the fear and loathing of gays from my scouting days. It was not an all-bad, experience, though. I know how to camp, backpack and those requisite knot-tying exercises come in handy today.