'I believe in the comfortable wearing of blue corduroy, it is both stylish and makes a pleasant sound."
Arise, ye thread of yore!
Boy Scouts consider lifting ban on gays.
“The Boy Scouts would not, under any circumstances, dictate a position to units, members, or parents,” said a spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America, Deron Smith, in a statement. “This would mean there would no longer be any national policy regarding sexual orientation, and the chartered organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting would accept membership and select leaders consistent with each organization’s mission, principles, or religious beliefs.”
Scout officials gave no timeline for making a formal decision, or for putting the policy into effect, but a spokeswoman said in an e-mail that discussion was anticipated at next week’s national executive board meeting. Board meetings are private and closed to the public and the news media, she said.
Fuck 'em, they still exclude atheists.
The issue for me is that they’re dropping the national policy, but still allowing local leaders to be bigoted fucks.
Yeah, this is just a PR move. It takes the heat off the Boy Scouts, but still allows them to discriminate because the decision will be made by a diffuse set of local groups.
But I guess it’s a step in the right direction. Even if it is small.
Agreed on all points - dropping the policy is not the same as reversing the policy.
Fair point, it’s a variant on the “States’ Rights” approach to continuing discrimination.
This is true, but it avoids the situation from a year or two back where that Eagle Scout was pretty much known to be gay by his local group (Club? Den? Pack? I never made it to Webalo) and his local leader, but got kicked out when it became known to the national leadership.
And yeah, it does suck that the individual groups still get to be as bigoted as they please.
Banning gays … FFS. Stop living in the 50s.
They simply want to re-craft their mission statement so they are not overtly anti-gay, while allowing local chapters to be as anti-gay as they want to in the hopes that corporate sponsors will relent since they now have plausible deniability. An actual change of heart? I doubt it - it’s all about giving the minimum to try and regain corporate sponsors.
It’s a step in the right direction. Purity of motive is too much to ask in this world.
You’re right that at lest it is a step in the right direction, however reluctant it may be. It’s probably too much to expect purity of motive, though I don’t think it is too much to ask.
Would agree except that topic in question is Boy Scouts of America. Intended to be very model of fostering integrity in the nation’s youth.
Organization’s leadership needs to change its stance, or its leaders. Otherwise, issue will continue to paint group with increasingly negative light and ultimately diminish its overall relevance.
As an one time scout I would love to defend the Boy Scouts but I don’t think it is possible in this instance. They are an old organization that is probably dieing out in many areas that refuses to admit the world has changed. I understand they have a “religious” base but as a scout in the 70’s I never saw that.
I think they are a lot like the Catholic church (and others I am sure) in that they dug in their heals on social issues and have watched the world change while they have argued that things are the same.
I’m still always amused by Rick Santorum, just because when I was a little kid I met him in person when he was running for Senator. And I distinctly remember thinking, even as a little kid, “Wow, this guy seems like a tool.”
they were observing you for potential. really, I was never in the scouts but information I’ve gleaned over the years, from friends and acquaintances, there’s not a chance in hell that I will let my boy attend church activities without supervision (or any at all if my wife didn’t have a say), or play bait for pedophiles in the scouts. Martial arts and soccer, just like his daddy.
…and we’re back to “pure evil.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, man. That’s classic.
I can only imagine they think allowing gays will result in troop leaders who wear frills and add merit badges like interior design and pedophilia.