Pete, my brother, just quit with this Department of War nonsense, and give your organization the name you truly want it to have.
It continues to amaze me the depths to which supposed strong men will go to avoid having to deal with women and girls. These “men” believe that males are so fragile that mere contact with females is destructive to their masculinity.
Yes, Scouting America (née Boy Scouts of America) has recently made the decision to allow troops to choose what they’re calling Family Scouting, which allows a single troop to register both boys and girls at the same time. This is in addition to the existing single gender format, which would allow boys to continue scouting without those icky girls around.
But you can’t be satisfied with that, and want the military to cut all ties with Scouting. Fine, I would be ok if my troop cuts all ties with the military. I was frankly getting sick of our annual “historical” campout being focused on this war and that war and this battle and that battle, and the memorial this and remembrance of that. This year the boys and girls in my troop will select something less focused on people killing other people, and we’ll be happy with the change.
The thing that’s so ridiculous about it is that ever since Scouting America let girls in, it’s been a parade of fig leaves whereby troops and packs effectively did family units while staying technically separate.
Nonsense like having a girls den and a boys den in the same pack… with the same leader, meeting time, location, topics, etc. Or troops with joint PLCs and committees, and just separate patrols.
Ultimately they just codified what was already happening. And chartering organizations can choose whether they allow co-ed units or not. And AFAIK even if they do, individual units can still choose to be boy or girl only.
The point is the choice. If people want co-ed, then great. But if they want single sex, then that’s great too. There is/can be value in girl-only or boy-only stuff like this.
My sons’ troop is boys-only and there aren’t any plans to change. What we’ve been doing is working and everyone is happy with it.
But other troops in our district have been effectively co-ed for a while now and are probably happy to get rid of the charade. More power to them!
And the whole idea that girls ruin scouting is stupid. Generally the girls outperform the boys because they’re less easily distracted and lazy than tween/teenage boys. And generally speaking, the BSA uniforms aren’t sexy looking for anyone, nor is being sweaty and unwashed like we typically are after the first night on a campout.
This is totally Hegseth pushing a political agenda by way of performing his duties. As usual, he chooses the most reprehensible way he can do anything.
He’s also threatening to drag Kelly back into active duty so he can court martial him. You’re boxing out of your weight class, Peetie. Kelly will make you look like the alcoholic loser that you are.
I suspect that’s exactly what they’re afraid of — that the boys in mixed troops will find out that the girls are at least as good at such things as they are.
I will partially disagree with this. They support choice, so long as people are choosing the “right things.” Their opposition to vaccines, masks during COVID, etc., all come down to “you’re infringing on my rights!”
For what it’s worth, my understanding is that the Boy Scouts changed to Scouting America, and started admitting girls, in 2019, because they were hemorrhaging money and losing members and adult leaders. This was largely due to two issues:
In 2018, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which had been the single biggest sponsor of local Boy Scout troop charters (edit: roughly 20% of Boy Scouts were members of LDS-sponsored local troops), severed ties with the BSA, and created its own substitute youth organization.
Ongoing lawsuits around sexual abuse, and the cost of defending the BSA organization against them, led to major financial problems (and probably contributed to fewer boys joining); BSA finally declared bankruptcy in 2020.
Well the name change was in parts. Originally they renamed the Boy Scouts program (11-18 year olds) to Scouts BSA when they let girls in, but the national organization remained named “Boy Scouts of America”.
Last year they changed the name of the national organization to Scouting America for much the same reason, and also to line up more with the naming customs of international Scouting organizations.
They let girls in because between the Mormon exodus after they let gay scouts and scouters participate and the sexual abuse scandal, membership was way down. AFAIK that was in 2018 for cub scouts and a year later for Scouts BSA.
They’re slowly becoming less regressive. First they stop demonizing homosexuality, then they let girls participate, and the result is the departure of highly regressive groups.
Oh, I wasn’t judging, just pointing out the impetus.
What’s so idiotic about Hegseth’s plan is that scouts and Eagle scouts are hugely overrepresented in the service academy cadets (something like half were scouts and 10-20% were Eagle scouts).
It’s a great program, and it’s really unfortunate that Hegseth’s only consideration is the political ideology involved.
I just had the timing wrong on the name change.
