What to do about the Boy Scouts?

[Muffin]

@Northern_Piper

What message does that send - “you can belong, but your mom is not welcome”?

Sounds like my old rugby team.

More seriously, by prohibiting gays and lesbians, the BSA saying that children need to be protected from gays and lesbians. In this case, Asa needs to be protected from his own parents.

Hypothetically, I can’t see my self permitting my child to belong to an organization that at its highest levels thought that my child needed to be protected from me.

[Munch]

@Kenm

Why? Both hate gays, both won’t have them in their organizations, both are free to preach hatred, both destroy lives, both cause heartache — if not psoriasis — and both declare it’s God’s law to do all that, and in the case of the BSA, against children especially.

You don’t need to exert much effort to find BSA charters that turn a blind eye towards the larger org’s prejudicial policies - in fact, you can find many testimonials to that effect right here on this message board. Additionally, while I hope it’s clear that I in no way support the BSA or their stance, I think there’s a vast difference between “hate” and “exclusion” - there’s certainly a difference between saying, “we’d prefer you not participate in our private organization” and standing on a corner screaming “God hates you!!!” If you can’t quite see the difference between those two, I think you’re being just a tad disengenious.

[Peremensoe]

@Kaio

Just a thought…

Since you say that his Troop is appalled at the big, public, anti-gay announcement, why not discuss with them if they’d like to 1> remain together as a troop, but 2> officially sever ties with the Scouts? There’s nothing saying you have to be a Boy Scout to do activities that the Boy Scouts do.

This would be most excellent.

[cornflakes]

@Peremensoe

This would be most excellent.

It may be more effective to go the Northern Star route and declare inclusiveness at the council level, or district level if needed. This is a volunteer organization, and the people at the top (and the bottom, and all the way in between) are in service to the organization, not in control of it.

[Muffin]

I’m curious to see if the National Council threatens to yank the Northern Star’s charter (assuming that there is one).

[DSeid]

A late bump … it seems like enough packs and scouts have stood up. An incomplete move as individual packs can still discriminate if they choose to, but they at least will not be forced to anymore.

The organization, which has 2.7 million members, is “potentially discussing” doing away with its national policy after months of protest, including hundreds of angry Eagle Scouts renouncing their hard-earned awards and mailing back their red-white-and-blue medals.
Many parents of Scouts across America found the national policy excluding gays confusing – and at odds with basic scouting ideals. …In the Scouts’ statement Monday, the group indicated that the national board may consider passing any decisions on gay membership to the local level. Each troop’s charter organization would be able to decide “consistent with each organization’s mission, principles, or religious beliefs.”
“The policy change under discussion would allow the religious, civic, or educational organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting to determine how to address this issue,” the statement said. … “The Boy Scouts of America have heard from scouts, corporations and millions of Americans that discriminating against gay Scouts and Scout leaders is wrong,” GLAAD President Herndon Graddick said. “Scouting is a valuable institution, and this change will only strengthen its core principles of fairness and respect.”
The protest was sparked last year after Ohio Cub Scout den leader Jennifer Tyrrell was forced to step down from her position in her son’s Cub Scout pack because she is openly gay. …