Sign a Petition: Boy Scouts of America: Reinstate Cub Scout leader who was removed for being gay

[jennythereader]

Boy Scouts of America: Reinstate Cub Scout leader who was removed for being gay.

The Boy Scouts are generally a good organization. The lessons and skills my husband, my brothers, and many of my friends learned through scouting helped to make them the wonderful men they are today. I would love for my potential future sons to have the same opportunities.

But if I were considering signing a little boy up for an extracurricular activity today the Boy Scouts wouldn't be on the list. It would take some work to find a place (or more likely, multiple places) that would teach the same range of outdoors skills, day-to-day life skills, and good citizenship, but right now it would be worth the effort. The problem with the Scouts is that just as I wouldn't want my children fed a spoonful of poison along with a plateful of healthy food, I don't want them taught intolerance along with all the valuable lessons.

I wouldn't sign a child up for a program that barred people from participating because of their ethnicity, and I don't feel that discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation is any better.

(For now, I'm not worrying about the fact that it's a single gender organization. I'd prefer that the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts would merge into a single organization as has happened in some European countries, but I accept that there are also good arguments to be made for staying single gender. I'm also not worrying too much about the requirement that Boy Scouts be monotheistic. Again, I'd prefer more openness, but it seems like a battle for another day.)

Comments

[finding_helena]

My husband considered being a professional scout, but he didn't want to be part of the organization in that capacity because specifically of these policies he disagreed with. They are losing themselves good people this way.

I am in favor of keeping it single-gender, personally.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

They really are.

Like I said, there are good arguments on both sides of the single gender/mixed gender question, and not just in scouting.

[lamiagirl.livejournal.com]

Two things:

First, scouting isn't solely divided into groups for boys (cub scouts, webelos, boy scouts) and girls (brownies, girl scouts, ..). There is also Explorer Scouts/Venture Scouts (the name has changed) that's for mixed gender 14-21 year olds.

Second, the gender/sexual orientation/religious/etc discrimination is a national policy thing that may or may not be present at the local level. I've known female boy scouts, flamingly gay boy scouts, devout atheist boy scouts, and hindu boy scouts. Remember: the policy of the local troups are really set by the involved parents of the kids in the organization. So if you want your pagan lesbian daughter to have the opportunities of boy scouts, advocate for them with the other involved parents. You might be surprised, and they might accept them with open arms.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. It sort of got lost among all the other tabs I had open.

Explorer/Venture Scouts are on the list of alternatives, but they aren't an option for younger kids.

On the "must be monotheistic" point, apparently that isn't actually official policy. I'm not sure if I was mis-informed, or if the policy changed since I was told that.

According to their public relations director, the official policy of the Boy Scouts of America is "we do not grant membership to individuals who are open or avowed homosexuals." (From this Reuters' article.) (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/30/usa-scouts-petition-idUSL1E8GU8EJ20120530) Even if they only enforce this policy at a local level sporadically, the fact that it exists is a problem.