COMMENTARY
They took it under advisement, they reviewed it, and then they rejected it—again. The Boy Scouts of America, a more than 100-year-old American institution that emphasizes leadership and character development for the country’s youth, has reaffirmed its policy to keep gays out.
From the Associated Press:
After a confidential two-year review, the Boy Scouts of America today emphatically reaffirmed its policy of excluding gays, ruling out any changes despite relentless protest campaigns by some critics.
An 11-member special committee, formed discreetly by top Scout leaders in 2010, “came to the conclusion that this policy is absolutely the best policy for the Boy Scouts,” the organization’ national spokesman, Deron Smith, told The Associated Press.
A Supreme Court ruling in in 2000 upheld the Scouts’ right to enforce its policy of blocking gay members and leaders from partaking in the organization but pressure from gay rights groups and its own members and some among its board forced the group to take a another look.
This continued exclusion of a group of Americans can only be interpreted as bigotry. As the even once-taboo topic of gay marriage gains acceptance—50% in the latest grouping of polls—the Scouts will have to learn to evolve, or they (and their sponsors) will either be left behind or be utilized by a more and more narrow subsection of the American public. Both outcomes will result in less and less influence yielded by the Scouts, minimizing its ability to share what many say are terrific programs and also to teach and train in the same vein of its stated mission to build character and values given that it will be excluding newly reached, evolved values of the country, including its sitting president. But, maybe that’s not such a bad thing if kids are going to be receiving the message that discrimination based on sexual orientation is a-okay.
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