Why It Is Important Not to Support the Boy Scouts
By Andy Heath
I have had a lot of concern over the years about the Boy Scouts' view of gay boys. Generally scouts start out at a young age, a time when it is too young to determine if those boys are gay. However, once the boy grows to be 15 or 16 and his sexuality starts to solidify, this is when the Boy Scouts' discrimination against gay students really begins.
How reprehensible that an organization would tell a 16 year old boy that he is not good enough for them because he is gay or might be gay. Many boys have very active lives in their scouting programs, and when that scouting program's representative tells the boy or his parents that they no longer want him, it can be traumatic for the boy. Alas, it seems that even our youngest gay students are not immune from the cruel discrimination against all of us.
And how ironic it is that the Boy Scouts of America, or organization that purports to dedicate itself to making boys' lives better and more productive, has decided that gay boys are not good enough. My question is why?
Perhaps they base their data on pseudoscience. Perhaps they believe that gay boys cannot run as fast or cannot earn as many merit badges as their straight counterparts. How sad that an organization that is so widely respected would stoop to tormenting gay boys that are not even legally old enough to have sex.
Not only does the organization prohibit its scouts from being gay, it also prohibits its leaders from being gay. This also is morally wrong because it chooses to "cleanse" its group of certain diversity. Because scouts have no association with gays in the Boy Scouts of America and are in fact taught by this organization that homosexuality is wrong, the boys associated with this group are at higher risk of become bigoted adults. How sad.
We cannot force the Boy Scouts of America to change its policies, but we can discourage their immoral behavior as evidenced by their insistence on disassociating themselves with us. We can refuse to support their fundraisers and we can discourage our friends from enrolling their children in this modern day "Youth for Hitler" organization. Perhaps you feel that is too strong a statement to make, but organizations that teach hate, whether directly or indirectly, qualify.
