The Boy Scouts of America, according to its national president Robert Gates, the former defense secretary, seems to be recognizing that its longstanding ban on participation by openly gay adults is no longer feasible. “The status quo in our movement’s membership standards cannot be sustained,” Gates told the Scouts’ national annual meeting in Atlanta.
It’s a good thing for a bedrock national organization to stop discriminating. In this case, the courts have recognized that scouting is a private organization that is free to choose its voluntary troop leaders. But the scouts are responding to the changing times, and the increasingly common view that their policy is intolerant and mean spirited.
But if you read the comments to the AP story (why do we read the comments!), you realize how strong the antipathy/animus remains, and how unrelenting is the belief that gay men just want to be in scouting for the opportunity to sexually abuse boys.
Again here, as elsewhere, our opponents are making excellent use of the heavy handed and, yes, also mean-spirited attempts to force bakers, florists and photographers (and pizza shops) to provide services in celebration of same-sex weddings. If for no other reason than the sheer tactical stupidity of these lawsuits and mob mobilizations against small working-class vendors with traditional religious beliefs, they should not be supported.
7 Comments for “Boy Scouts May Do the Right Thing”
posted by Tom Scharbach on
Again here, as elsewhere, our opponents are making excellent use of the heavy handed and, yes, also mean-spirited attempts to force bakers, florists and photographers (and pizza shops) to provide services in celebration of same-sex weddings.
I have been reading the comments, as you suggested. I read through the most recent 225 comments.
I did not find “our opponents making excellent use of the heavy-handed and, yes, mean-spirited attempts to force bakers, florists and photographers (and pizza shops) to provide services in celebration of same-sex weddings”, except for a scattering of comments that could be construed as references to that subject:
Did you have specific comments in mind, Stephen, when you wrote this?
posted by Anastasia Beaverhausen on
Let the florist thing go for five minutes, please. Your post would have been fine if it stopped after paragraph three, but you had to drag your dead horse into it.
posted by Lori Heine on
Exactly. The religious right doesn’t need any help keeping their grand crusade for “religious freedom” marching on. Why do any LGBT bloggers need to help them?
posted by Tom Scharbach on
Republican-allied LGBT bloggers help because the “religious freedom” crusade is the latest iteration of the Republican Party’s “gays are dangerous and despicable” effort to energize the conservative Christian base in service of the Republican Party’s political interests.
posted by Anastasia Beaverhausen on
Fine – then let the Republican party blow itself up.
I’m a Libertarian.
posted by Jorge on
The Boy Scouts of America, according to its national president Robert Gates, the former defense secretary,
Who just so happened to be one of the hidden hand advocates of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Though his successor signed off on the repeal, the implementation of the conditions necessary for the Pentagon to agree occurred on Gates’s watch.
This story is an aberration that should not be given much weight.
posted by Tom Jefferson III on
First off all, I agree with what the U.S.S.C. court said about the right of the Boy Scouts of America to set its own membership rules. I think that is different then saying — as some have suggested — that anyone cannot do whatever the hell they want as long as the claim its backed up by their religion.
Second off all, I suspect that the Boy Scouts of America itself will hold off on any significant change. Mainly because I think that the change would have to get approved by a committee or some such thing and they probably are not eager to “go their” again.
Thirdly, I am a bit confused as to what Gates actually said. The Minneapolis Star Tribune news story had Gates saying that he would leave it up to the local councils to decide whether or not to allow gay adults as Scout leaders.
As a practical matter, the Boy Scouts of America will probably decide — even as an unwritten rule — that if a local Scout council wants to allow gay adults to be Scout leaders, (or wants to keep the current policy) the national council is not going to get involved.
Yes, the ban is dumb, and the arguments made in defense of the ban are lame, insulting and sometimes just plain insane.
However, “saving face” can be an important factor in these internal disputes. The ‘local control’ option does allow both sides to ‘save face’