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American Boy Scouts to Allow Gay Scouts


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Boy Scouts to Allow Gay Youths to Join

(CNN) Openly gay youths will be allowed to join scouting, delegates to the annual meeting of the Boy Scouts of America voted Thursday.

More than 60% of the group's 1,400-member national council voted in Grapevine, Texas, for the historic policy change, which will take effect January 1.

"No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone," says the approved resolution.

The BSA will maintain its ban on gay adult leaders.

"The resolution also reinforces that Scouting is a youth program, and any sexual conduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting," the 103-year-old organization said in a statement.

The BSA said there are no plans for further review of the issue.

"The Boy Scouts of America will not sacrifice its mission, or the youth served by the movement, by allowing the organization to be consumed by a single, divisive, and unresolved societal issue," it said.

Reaction to Thursday's vote was swift.

The Human Rights Campaign said the BSA took a "historic step forward."

"Unfortunately, the new policy does not go far enough, leaving adult Eagle Scouts, scout leaders, and parents behind," the group said.

http://www.cnn.com/2....html?hpt=hp_t1

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This is too easy a joke to make, but how long before standup comics and talk show hosts start making cracks about new gay merit badges being added to the Boy Scouts troops?

The story does not say whether or not the hundreds of gay scouts who were coerced into quitting (or were thrown out) in past years will be reinstated.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/23/boy-scouts-gay-ban-ruling_n_3328541.html

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This is too easy a joke to make, but how long before standup comics and talk show hosts start making cracks about new gay merit badges being added to the Boy Scouts troops?

The story does not say whether or not the hundreds of gay scouts who were coerced into quitting (or were thrown out) in past years will be reinstated.

http://www.huffingto..._n_3328541.html

Good point, Pec. There should be a new classification: Retroactive Scout.

C

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There was this from Wednesday:

Dear Connecticut Yankee Council Scouting family,

The Boy Scouts of America, Connecticut Yankee Council is committed to providing high quality programs that deliver leadership skills, citizenship training, character development and personal fitness to young people in 37 communities in southwestern Connecticut. We are committed to our mission, we respect other's viewpoints, and we are welcoming of others.

Scouting in the Connecticut Yankee Council is open to all youth and adults who subscribe to the values of the Scout Oath and Law regardless of their personal sexual orientation. All our Scouts and leaders must display the highest levels of good conduct and any sexual conduct within Scouting is unacceptable. Our charter partners retain the responsibility to select the best possible leadership for their units consistent with their moral values.

Our Scouts and leaders repeatedly pledge to respect all people and defend the rights of others. Prejudice, intolerance and unlawful discrimination of any form are unacceptable within our membership.

By remaining true to our values, and keeping our conviction of preparing young people for life, we strive to expand our capacity to serve more youth through high quality programs.

Sincerely,

Michael Abrahamson

Council President

president@ctyankee.org

http://www.ctyankee....ews/news#002248

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And The Onion has weighed in with their own fake news item:

Gay Kid Excited To Be Made Fun Of For Second Thing

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SUGAR LAND, TX—Shortly after reports surfaced today that the Boy Scouts of America had voted to lift its ban on gay youths, local homosexual child Max Lovell, 14, told reporters that he was looking forward to joining the organization and finally being ridiculed for another thing. “This is great. I get made fun of every day for being gay, but now I’ll be called a dork, too,” said the enthusiastic Lovell, who is routinely taunted for being homosexual but will now endure everything from light ribbing to vicious name-calling based on his affiliation with the outdoor-preparedness youth group. “It’s perfect because I’ve been looking for a second thing to get mocked for, and Boy Scouts seems like a great fit. I think it’ll really open me up to a whole new batch of cutting insults.” Lovell added that he also “can’t wait” to see what his peers will do when he joins the eighth-grade marching band in the fall.

For the record, I was a dork in high school, was gay, and was in the marching band for 6 years, so I think I'd qualify.

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This only makes it look like the ruling scout council is doing something when it is not.

I think many in the gay community realize that parents would often like their kids to have access to the group dynamics presented in scouting. The life skills, the entertainment value of a group of boys camping in the woods, the friendships made, all important things. But of course gay parents may not participate, that is the clear message here.

The scouts has become a Christian organization and of course we all know that Jesus didn't masturbate when he was a child, gods don't do that sort of thing unless perhaps they are Greek. I know what went on during those camping trips and so do you, so why is there such denial?

Perhaps the scouting leadership would rather teach the boys about adultery since many heterosexual men engage in that life skill. I still don't see the 12-15 year old bunch containing any boys that either know they are gay or plan to come out to the troop. This leadership decision is a lot like masturbation: temporary satisfaction due to external stimulus.

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Boy Scouts to Allow Gay Youths to Join

More than 60% of the group's 1,400-member national council voted in Grapevine, Texas, for the historic policy change, which will take effect January 1.

It's not that great a day, not only did they leave undone those things that ought to have been done, but they state with some complacency that there were 560 bigots in the room. Presumably that's at least 560 troops that will be giving gay scouts a pretty lukewarm welcome. Come on lads, do what the bigot Republican Senator said you should have done... set up a new Gay Scouts

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And the campfires would be a lot more fun.

Don't you love these smug assertions that sexual activities are absolutely foreign to scouting programs and scouting activities and the whole essence of scouting? It's something like the Victorians denying that sex existed. And these people are dealing with an age where sex pervades almost every thought they have.

C

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And here comes the call for Christian scouting to form organizations that exclude gay boys:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2013/0525/Boy-Scouts-Will-anti-gay-troops-emerge

I just hope that people see this for what it is, a return to the status quo stance and renewed bigotry by Christian churches. No matter that the mindset of many of these organizations is the brainwashing of children:

"The Royal Rangers, which have a similar skill-testing program as the Boy Scouts, has a stated purpose to "evangelize, equip and empower the next generation of Christlike men and lifelong servant leaders."

Pretty scary stuff for a young teenage boy to handle. Perhaps we need a gender neutral scouting program like Kid Scouts to include boys and girls. Then they could have leadership run by only married couples, gay or straight. The Family Scouts...I like that one.

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Well, that's a good idea! Eliminate gay boys from their group. Now, let's see. Hey, blind kids certainly can't hike with the vivacity expected of scouts, so they shouldn't be allowed either. And what about short kids? If someone has to climb a tree to spot where camp was, and they can't reach the lowest braches of the tree to be climbed, they're a danger to the troop. They're out.

And then, or coure, Islamic kids wouldn't qualify at all. What if someone was teaching knot-tying and one of the scouts started praying to the East? That wouldn't work at all, so let's reject all Islamic kids.

We can see where this is going. I think they'll end up with only blue-eyed, blond-haired, white, Christian children. I think the Scouts are creating their own Aryan race. At least a lot of their leaders are trying to. They'd certainly find the idea appealing.

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I get pissed off at Christian churches that quote the Bible and claim to speak for God, their god, I don't believe that nonsense. But in doing so this church is disenfranchising 300 member families, what total bull cookies:

http://now.msn.com/s...oots-boy-scouts

And you have to love this line of thinking: "We cannot be distracted from the mission God has called us to," Hester said. "We want everyone, including ourselves, to live by biblical standards."

You guys need a new book to read.

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Wrong...this man is just plain wrong and he, not the Boy Scouts, is to blame for his son's tears:

http://usnews.nbcnew...cid=msnhp&pos=4

Perhaps what I see as absurd in all of this nonsense is that gay boys have been scouts since forever, I was one. But at such an early age I don't think declaring myself was possible since I didn't really understand all the feelings.

What is totally stupid is that all these good church people think that their kids are suddenly at risk for...I don't know what. But the right wing has spent so much time and cash trying to convince people that gays are going to convert their children into something they are not. Boy Scouts is just the latest target of their propaganda nonsense.

Gay people have been scouts since the beginning, they have also been in churches across the land. This move towards desertion is based upon false ideals, something the right wing is very good at manufacturing. If parents like this jerk are willing to make their children suffer then perhaps they will pay the price. What is more likely is that this kid will learn hatred towards gays for no good reason.

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Quoting from another parent in the article: '

“It was hard to explain to a 9-year-old the complexities of why I was telling him that we had to quit,” Miller said. “He told me, 'Daddy, it should be like church. Everybody should be welcome.'”

Miller said he then told Cody that the point of going to church is to seek forgiveness — not for being all-inclusive.'

I hope Miller will seek forgiveness in his church for stomping on his son Cody's innocence, his ideals, and his heartfelt willingness to be inclusive. What a gift to give a nine year-old.

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Some interesting discussions in the comments at that link, Pec. It would appear that the atheists are not going to sit idly by, whilst blind belief is used to justify compliance to fundamental superstitions.

Tearing a child's innocence from their heart to make them seek forgiveness for imagined wrongs, is to confuse fear for love.

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