[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
For the reasons I stated in my post #48, above:
I strongly agree with Bobotheoptimist that the BSA will never change except from within. There are plenty of local Scouting councils, troops, packs and dens that ignore the national organization’s gay-bashing policy (largely Mormon-driven, according to a Time magazine article I read at the time, FWIW). Our Cub Scout pack doesn’t lift a finger to enforce the anti-gay policy; all are welcome. Scouting’s too good a program to shun, IMHO.
Don’t know how I can say so in a Thrifty way, though…
[/QUOTE]
Had a whole reply typed out and lost it to MS’s stupid pop-up blocker, but here goes again…
I think that the reason that the BSA is so paranoid regarding gays stems back to the late 80’s early 90’s paranoia regardig exposure to molestaiton. If you remember, it seemed like the national organization was getting hit weekly from some kind of multi-million dollar settlement from some remote jerk. That’s what was driving the repeated training w/ “two deep” and all the other stuff. Since so many of the cases tended to be male- on -male assualt, it was easier to just paint witha large brush and say “if you’re gay, you’re out.” In light of the fact that they almost went bankrupt over these cases, it’s understandable (if not agreeable) to this stance. Basically they backed themselves into this postion as a matter of survival.
There also seemed to be a lot of media preassure whenever a homosexual individual was connected w/ the boy scouts, the media back then made sure it was included in a story. If a molester was caught, even if the victim was not a scout, it was “such and such, a boy scout leader.” Some times I found it funny, espcially when the connections were tennuous like being a troop committee member (which has little or no contact w/ the kids).
This bad PR did not seem to be as much of a problem for the Girl scouts, which I understand from a freind who works in the Girl scout organization have a don’t ask don’t tell policy. It’s also very telling that the Girl scouts are larger than the Boy Scouts in terms of funding, accoring to Forbe’s list of charities.
The second side of this is that over the last 20 years, the leverage that the LDS church has in the naitonal organization has grown very significantly in terms of memebership and monetary contributiuon. I do not have a cite for this, but it has been explained to me that the boy scouts are a quasi offical youth program for the LDS. With the numbers leverage I think that we are seeing some of those opinions come through the national staff.
I woudl find it interesting (in another thread) to talk about the difference in how the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts have handled these issues, as well as general changes in society that seems to have reduced youth’s interest in joining these types of organizations.
