The position on gays and lesbian's in Boy Scouts is a complex one and is one that is going to be with us as long as BSA National is dominated by certain large religious faiths that charter a lot of units and serve a lot of youth. Unlike Girl Scouts, the BSA "franchises" their program to local organizations who run the program pretty much as they want within certain parameters. So, a Church could limit the membership of its unit to members of a certain faith if they wanted to. The idea being that for that church the program is part of its youth ministry. Churches like the Roman Catholic and Morman faiths are very strong on the idea tht morally straight means not being an avowed homosexual. They have the numbers at the top to control that issue and I don't think that will change. BSA had the chance several years ago to shake off that particular yoke, but a number of the more secular sponsors were backing off their relationship with scouting so sticking with the churches was a matter of survival. (At least in my view.) I would think
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Thank you for your very informed statement. It’s not that I think that they boy scouts teach homophobia or that it will instill homophobia in my son. I feel that letting my son join a group that supports a policy against a certain group of people-then I am lending them my support by being part of them. Sort of guilt by association. I also have friends and family who are gay and I feel like I would be doing them a disservice by allowing my son to be involved with a group that makes them uncomfortable.
As a Boy Scout athiest/agnostic I had trouble with the Boyscouts and not letting Athiesm an gay/lesbians in. For the religion part, You have to believe in a god. Not the Christian God in partcular. any will do. I just ubderstood the value of lipservice and didn't scream "I'm an ATHIEST
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As for the atheist/agnostic part, my son really doesn’t care much about Christianity. I don’t think he gives it much thought. Personally I don’t like the idea of lip service and having to hide what I believe or not believe. But I don’t think this would effect my son all that much.
Since we are no longer in the Tampa/Plant city area-I’m sure I could find a troop that would be willing to take him in. I don’t want an all disabled troop though.
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Since we are no longer in the Tampa/Plant city area-I’m sure I could find a troop that would be willing to take him in. I don’t want an all disabled troop though.
Thank you for your input.
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There's always the Spiral Scouts. With Harry Potter being all the rage, maybe it's cooler than it...uh...looks. http://spiralscouts.org/metadot/index.pl?id=2170&isa=Category&op=show
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