FROM Goodbye, America (in a photo).

These children, by the way, are merely political pawns. They can have no idea that the rainbow flag stands for tyranny and perversion.

— Comments —

Joe A. writes:

Correction: Those poor scouts are not pawns. They are sex toys.

David W. writes:

I am not sure if it is a general rule from the Marxist or Saul Alinksky handbook, but their strategy has always been to capture the culture first. Plan has always been smooth going.

WF writes:

Nazi youth or Communist youth?

What will be the ramifications of “gay” troop leaders. Isn’t this the equivalence of unmarried 20-something men as troop leader for the brownies? What insurance company is going to issue insurance at a reasonable rate to the Boy Scouts to prevent a scandal similar to the Catholic Church from occurring 10 years from now?

Ultimately is this the demise of the Boy Scouts? Would you send you eight-year-old out on a camping trip with two “gay” troop leaders? Maybe when the Boy Scouts finally disbands it can be replaced with the “Communist Youth” of America.

Matthew H. writes:

There is a lot of unwarranted traditionalist defeatism on this issue. I am currently involved in Boy Scouting, serving as an Assistant Scoutmaster for my oldest son’s Boy Scout troop, and a den leader for my youngest son’s Cub Scout pack. As a boy I earned my Eagle Scout award, and while in college worked as an assistant director of a large Boy Scout summer camp.

First, sex and sexuality are not part of the Boy Scouting program in any way, shape, or form. Those subjects simply never come up. The Boy Scouting program is about campouts, community service, merit badges, and character development. None of those subjects are even tangentially related to sexuality. Is it possible for an unscrupulous adult leader to deviate from the official program and raise those issues before the boys? Of course. But they are not part of the official program. It’s possible to turn a performance of a symphony orchestra, or a mathematics class, into a lecture on sexuality, but everyone would agree that if this were to happen, it would be a drastic and unwarranted deviation from the norm. I don’t expect issues of sexuality to be discussed in 99.9% of Boy Scout Troops and packs. As a practical matter, the subject will simply never come up. These issues have received far more discussion in the media than they will ever receive in Boy Scout meetings.

Second, the overwhelming majority of volunteers in the Boy Scouting movement are parents, almost always married, who selflessly volunteer their time to do something good for children. The work is usually mundane, time-consuming, and moderately difficult. The time commitment required is fairly substantial for a volunteer program. I don’t expect swinging singles to flock to the program in droves so that they can molest children. They are too busy hooking up in bars and pumping iron in the gym and have little time left to devote going on campouts, service projects, and boards of review. If a sudden influx of predatory singles were to approach the Boy Scouts, it would be obvious to parents who would take great pains to make sure that there is no opportunity for the boys’ safety to be compromised.

Third, this entire controversy is artificial. Again, sex and sexuality have no place in the Boy Scouting program. The BSA has been in existence for over 105 years and those subjects have NEVER been part of the program. The only reason the Boy Scouts were targeted by activists is because they see Boy Scouting as a powerful symbol of traditional morality. Naturally, those activists wanted to do everything they could to destroy and hurt such a symbol. But the entire controversy is itself symbolic because, once again, sex and sexuality are not part of the program. The Boy Scouts were not indoctrinating children in bourgeoisie heterosexual morality. There was no real problem of “discrimination” against gay teenagers. if one of the kids in my son’s Boy Scout troop had decided to reveal that fact to the adult leaders, we would have quietly asked him not to raise the subject of sexuality around the other Scouts. I would have thought that a young man who chose to reveal something so personal to his Boy Scout leaders was troubled, and that the duty of the adult leaders in such a situation is to be kind to the young man and help him. We would not have expelled him from the BSA in disgrace, forbidden him from earning his Eagle Scout award, or anything of the sort. The situation would have been handled quietly and compassionately. The problem of “discrimination” against gay Scouts was never real, it was only symbolic.

Since the issue was merely symbolic in the past, I expect it to remain entirely symbolic in the future. Swinging singles from Greenwich Village and West Hollywood will not flock to the program to become Scoutmasters . The curriculum will not be revised to incorporate the subject of sexuality. Nothing will really change. Sure, it’s possible that there will be a few Scout troops headed by openly gay man or, more likely, gay women. But 99% of Scout troops will be headed by heterosexual men and women. And frankly, while I believe that homosexual behavior is (1) a sin; and (2) harmful to gays and to the rest of society, if a gay person is willing to make the considerable sacrifices necessary to be a Scoutmaster, and behaves appropriately around the boys, I’m not going to get unduly upset about it. Indeed, I’ll respect the considerable sacrifices made by the gay Scout leader. I can envision a lesbian Cub Scout behaving appropriately with children and doing her best to run the program effectively. I don’t like it, and I would never allow my kids to be in her Cub Scout den, but I can respect that woman for making a considerable effort to help the boys and acknowledge that she is trying to do a decent thing, because that’s the truth. In any event, it’s not a situation that will come up very much in practice.

Fourth, we should not underestimate the opportunity to help troubled children that boy Scouting affords us. When I was in the program as a boy, my parents divorced. Within six months, my father became a drug dealer — he started dealing drugs to his co-workers and actually had a hydroponic marijuana farm in the spare bedroom of his rental house, and at age 41 started dating a woman who was 21. To put it mildly, those were difficult times for me. Boy Scouting was a beacon of stability, security and wholesomeness. My Scoutmasters served as role models of stable, responsible adults during a time when my father had abandoned most of his paternal responsibilities and setting a very poor example. I don’t know what would’ve happened if Scouting hadn’t been there for me. These days there are far more troubled kids out there who desperately need Scouting. The need is greater than ever. We cannot forget that.

But the ultimate issue here is what we are supposed to do once the program has been compromised. Do we simply abandon a program that has done tremendous good for millions of boys for more than 100 years? Do we throw up our hands in disgust and participate no further? Or do we try to make the best of the situation and continue to devote our time to helping boys? Hypothetically speaking, if boy Scouting is only 90% as good as it used to be before the issue of gays in Scouting came up, it’s still a wonderful institution that does tremendous good. We shouldn’t just abandon it. We should do what we can to make it work, or admit that it is OK with us if boys just sit around playing video games and watching Internet videos all day.

Laura writes:

I’m sorry, but I really did not intend this entry to be about the Boy Scouts.

It’s about children marching behind the rainbow flag. It speaks for itself.

Bill R. writes:

Laura writes, “It’s about children marching behind the rainbow flag. It speaks for itself.”

Indeed it does.  Here we see little children being conscripted by adults to advocate a political point of view they cannot possibly appreciate or understand.  Let us consider; the law does not (yet) recognize youngsters of this age as having the emotional maturity to consent to any of the sexual acts that flag trumpets; why, therefore, are they deemed to have the emotional maturity to consent to the politics that support them?  And if they don’t, then they are being used and abused.  It is disgusting.  It is an abomination.

What is being perpetrated upon those children is political pedophilia.  Their minds are being violated for some adult’s political gratification as surely as a pedophile would violate their bodies for his sexual gratification.

J.D. writes:

From frequently asked questions in the Boy Scout manual:

“Can a youth member of the BSA participate in a social or political cause that calls attention to his or her sexual orientation or preference?”

Answer: “Under the BSA’s rules and regulations, a youth member may appear in uniform at a nonpartisan and nonpolitical gathering in a way that gives him or her the opportunity to render service in harmony with his or her training in the Scouting program. However, the BSA is required to avoid involving the Scouting movement in any activity of a political character, and Scouts and their leaders may not participate in single-issue or social advocacy events or activities outside of the Scouting program in a way that suggests the BSA endorses that activity or event. Each youth member is free as an individual to express his or her thoughts or take action on political or social issues but must not use Scouting’s official uniforms and insignia when doing so.”

As Laura writes about the subject image, the answer to the question above also “speaks for itself.”

Mary writes:

I know this entry wasn’t meant to be about the Boy Scouts but I think a response to Matthew H.’s lengthy comment on that subject is in order if that’s OK.

I want to thank Matthew for his hard work and dedication to a program which has been helpful to both my immediate and extended families through its promotion of wholesome and traditional masculine pursuits. Having said that, I feel his words fail to exhort anyone who chooses to remain in the BSA program in light of the recent changes – especially single mothers – to do so with an attitude of extreme caution and watchfulness. The fact that the BSA has never engaged in topics related to sex and sexuality is cold comfort. Homosexual activists choose their targets carefully and relentlessly pursue them; the fact that they are after the BSA means they consider it an important and worthy target and that’s all we need to know.

“Second, the overwhelming majority of volunteers in the Boy Scouting movement are parents, almost always married, who selflessly volunteer their time to do something good for children.” Soon many gay leaders will be married fathers of sons in light of Friday’s ruling. But this won’t be a requirement, single gay men will be accepted simply on the basis of their usefulness as ex-boys scouts and volunteers and protected by anti-discrimination laws. It will be awkward at best to say no to them.

“…if one of the kids in my son’s Boy Scout troop had decided to reveal that [he was gay] to the adult leaders, we would have quietly asked him not to raise the subject of sexuality around the other Scouts.” These teens are encouraged by activists to come out on Facebook, etc. This is not cynicism but simple reality. The other boys in the troop would then be in the position of sharing tents with a known gay teenage boy, one who may be older than them, as the BSA is ideally supposed to be boy-led with older boys mentoring younger ones. At least in our troop, they actually paired up and shared tents on camp-outs. The possibility of romantic evaluation, whether subtle or overt, becomes a fear and a discomfort – but the boys/leaders will not be free to object, again because of anti-dicrimination laws.

The hair stood up on the back of my neck when Matthew finished up his comments by relating that the BSA was especially important to him because, since he had no father in the home, he depended on scout leaders as role models, etc. (my own brother’s situation). Matthew doesn’t seem to realize that in light of the new changes boys in this situation will now be extremely vulnerable to grooming from leaders and even worse, older scouts who become role models/mentors, are looked up to and trusted and admired; all will have unprecedented access on camp-outs, etc. without the single mother around to keep an eye out.

My own boys are aged out but my heart goes out to the well-meaning people (and they are not all well-meaning) in the BSA. Most troops will not be immediately affected; some will never be affected. I am not calling for anyone to abandon scouting, only to proceed with extreme care.

Ken writes:

It seems that Mathew H. is in denial about the potential harm gay scoutmasters can and will do to children. Just thought he (or people in general) should know that there have been over 20,000 reported cases of sexual abuse over the decades in the Boy Scouts, and that’s when gays aren’t allowed in the Scouts. Allowing in gay scoutmasters will only give them easier access. Here’s a 98-page pdf file that documents about 1600 such cases.

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