I am probably one of the only few people who get exasperated at the gay community on the subject of the Boy Scouts. The announcement today put me in a bad mood:
I'm in a bad mood partly because of the decision to keep this stupid policy. Another reason for my anger is the fact that religious right groups are praising the Scouts while implying that gay men are sleazy individuals who want "access " to children.
But the single largest reason for my anger is at my own community.
I don't care about the Boy Scouts and I don't agree with my community's decision to fight this battle the way it is being fought. I didn't like it when the James Dale case was fought all the way to the Supreme Court because I knew we would lose that one. Dale was the young gay man who was a scout leader until his sexual orientation became public. When he was kicked out, he sued all the way to the Supreme Court
And the court ruled in 2000 that the Boy Scouts had a right to free association. I agree with that.
I don't see the Boy Scouts in the same manner as I see employment discrimination or housing discrimination. This is an organization which should have a right to dictate who its members are so long as it doesn't receive public funds.
And therein lies the rub, so to speak. Our argument with the Scouts should not be the fact that it doesn't allow gays in. It should be with the question does it receive tax dollars or the things which are paid for by tax dollars while pursuing a discriminatory policy.
Seems to me that based upon its recent history, the last thing the Boy Scouts should fear is gay men. We are not the reason it had to pay $18.5 million to a victim of sexual abuse in 2010.
Nor were gay men involved in the 2011 case in which it was discovered that Boy Scout officials in this country and Canada knew that a pedophile was in their ranks and did nothing to stop him.
In spite of its reputation, the Boy Scouts sounds like an organization I wouldn't allow my dog in, much less my child. We don't need to force this group to allow us in. What we need to do is not only stay far away but also keep our tax dollars far away.
I say let the Boy Scouts keep the gay community out so long as our tax dollars are kept out also.
The Boy Scouts of America announced today that it will continue its long-standing policy of discrimination against LGBT scouts and scout leaders and will take no action on proposals to reconsider that policy. This comes despite growing pressure to lift the ban from Eagle Scouts, an Ohio mom who was removed from her position as a Cub Scout den leader purely because she is a lesbian, and two prominent national board members.
A spokesman said a secret 11-person committee, appointed in 2010 to study the issue, “came to the conclusion that this policy is absolutely the best policy for the Boy Scouts.” The group dismissed the announcements by Ernst & Young CEO James Turley and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, both members of the BSA national board, that the group ought to lift its ban.
I'm in a bad mood partly because of the decision to keep this stupid policy. Another reason for my anger is the fact that religious right groups are praising the Scouts while implying that gay men are sleazy individuals who want "access " to children.
But the single largest reason for my anger is at my own community.
I don't care about the Boy Scouts and I don't agree with my community's decision to fight this battle the way it is being fought. I didn't like it when the James Dale case was fought all the way to the Supreme Court because I knew we would lose that one. Dale was the young gay man who was a scout leader until his sexual orientation became public. When he was kicked out, he sued all the way to the Supreme Court
And the court ruled in 2000 that the Boy Scouts had a right to free association. I agree with that.
I don't see the Boy Scouts in the same manner as I see employment discrimination or housing discrimination. This is an organization which should have a right to dictate who its members are so long as it doesn't receive public funds.
And therein lies the rub, so to speak. Our argument with the Scouts should not be the fact that it doesn't allow gays in. It should be with the question does it receive tax dollars or the things which are paid for by tax dollars while pursuing a discriminatory policy.
Seems to me that based upon its recent history, the last thing the Boy Scouts should fear is gay men. We are not the reason it had to pay $18.5 million to a victim of sexual abuse in 2010.
Nor were gay men involved in the 2011 case in which it was discovered that Boy Scout officials in this country and Canada knew that a pedophile was in their ranks and did nothing to stop him.
In spite of its reputation, the Boy Scouts sounds like an organization I wouldn't allow my dog in, much less my child. We don't need to force this group to allow us in. What we need to do is not only stay far away but also keep our tax dollars far away.
I say let the Boy Scouts keep the gay community out so long as our tax dollars are kept out also.
