Posted on 05/21/2015 10:42:22 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The president of the Boy Scouts of America on Thursday called for an end to the group’s blanket ban on gay adult leaders, warning Scout executives that “we must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be,” and that “any other alternative will be the end of us as a national movement.”
At the same time, religious organizations that sponsor a majority of local Scout troops, including the Mormons and Roman Catholics, should remain free to set their own policies for leaders, said the president, Robert M. Gates, the former director of the C.I.A. and the former secretary of defense.
Mr. Gates called for the changes at an annual national meeting of the group, in Atlanta. He said that he was not yet making a formal proposal but that the Scouts’ governing body should take up the issue formally at a future meeting.
The treatment of gay men and boys has been a source of wrenching debate over the last decade. Conservative religious groups that sponsor many Scout troops, including the Mormon Church and the Roman Catholic Church, have opposed the participation of openly gay members while local leaders in more liberal areas have called for an end to the ban.
In 2013, Boy Scout leaders from across the country voted, with more than 60 percent approval, to say that no youth may be denied membership “on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.” But it left intact the policy that no openly gay adults could serve in the organization.
Since then, a Scout group in New York has defied that policy by employing an openly gay leader, and several other groups around the country have expressed opposition to the ban.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
In my 32 years in the BSA I enjoyed wonderful fellowship with more than a few LDS scouters from different councils.
Gates won’t be fired because he was brought in for just this insidious purpose.
Willingly; how many left the Scouts over this; apparently very few.
Trail Life sounds fine, but the American people will want to stick with the brand names they are familiar with like “Boy Scouts” and “Hillary Rodham Clinton”.
~ 10% and growing decrease in membership since the announcement of the youth homo policy.
Keeping in mind that not all of the 2M+ members are staunch, social conservatives, did anyone realistically expect to see the BSA gutted?
For many, it’s not a cut and dried issue and the impact may not have even been felt at their level...so they didn’t leave immediately. I’ve stayed on past my expiration date for some of the more less conservative Scouts in my Troop.
Many kids at this age have been effectively taught through various social and educational means that there’s really nothing “wrong” with homosexuality. But if you sit and talk with them, you find that many are smarter than that and are just putting on a front of tolerance. So I’ve not abandoned them out of principle, I’ve been with them too long.
The departures are coming...TL USA is growing...that’s the real message here. People are looking for an alternative regardless of “brand” as long as the alternative keeps its promise to the youth. Advancement and baubles (Eagle) aren’t the end all for many of the kids...
10 percent is thus far not that much a drop in the BS membership. You’re right presumably about families of the left in the Scouts for their own reasons.
Gates probably just sees himself as the most tolerant of “Republicans”.
Gates has always been overrated, like most American icons.
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