On Fri, 24 May 2013 05:44:32 -0500
Tom McDonald wrote:
On 5/23/2013 9:38 PM, Mitchell Holman wrote:
Boy Scouts vote to lift ban on gay youth
May 23 2013

GRAPEVINE, Texas -- The Boy Scouts of America voted
Thursday to end its controversial policy banning gay
kids and teens from joining one of the nation's most
popular youth organizations, ditching membership
guidelines that had roiled the group in recent years.
Over 61 percent of Scouting's National Council of 1,400
delegates from across the country voted to lift the ban,
BSA officials said. The final tally was 757 yes votes,
to 475 no.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...couts-vote-to-
lift-ban-on-gay-youth?lite

It's a start. I think a good start. But it's ultimately doomed to
either be expanded to allow gay leaders, or to go back to not
allowing openly gay youth as Scouts. As it stands, a gay young man
can be a great Scout until he turns 18, at which point he is, what,
not a great Scout?

South Park, the educational TV satire, did an excellent episode on the
Boy Scouts and featured a character named "Big Gay Al" as the scout
leader. He was an excellent role model, the kids enjoyed learning
under his guidance, and the parents were happy that their kids were
being taught well and having fun. Then the upper management discovered
that "Big Gay Al" is a homosexual, and so they kicked him out and
replaced him with a masochistic and apparently-straight man who started
taking pictures of the children.

The contrast was well presented, and it seems the main point South Park
made overall was that discriminating against homosexuality isn't a
tactic that solves or prevents problems.

I hope the internal pressure of this contradiction will lead to
opening Scouting to gay adult leaders under the same regime of
behavior expected of straight leader. Time will tell.

The fact that 39% voted against homosexuality (it shouldn't even have
been a vote in the first place) very likely indicates that this issue
will be the centre of conflict for the Boy Scouts again in the future.

BTW, FWIW, I am straight, an Eagle Scout, member of the Order of the
Arrow, and was an assistant Scoutmaster. I love me some Scouting, and
wish only that it will be open to anyone who wants to take part in it
under the guidance of the Laws and the Promise.

That seems rational and reasonable to me.

--
Fidem Turbāre, the non-existent atheist goddess
"As the Catholic church becomes more and more tolerant, some day they
will have to consider the possibility of a gay pope. Possibly the
largest issue will be having to decide whether he is 'absolutely
divine' or 'just simply marvellous.'"
-- Unknown