Comments on: Bigotry, Sex Scandals Deplete Boy Scout Ranks on 100th Anniversary

By: Shea

Shea — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:52:19 +0000

Long gone are the days of Baden Powell’s philosophy of building character and values through outdoor/nature activities. I feel the influence of the Morman church requiring their young men to be Scouts as part of their religious upbringing and prep for their mission has a tremendous influence,say, and application towards the anti gay and atheist rulings. The Mormon church has great finacial influence in the Scouting program and I feel the reason by which these policies are inforced.
I come from a Scouting family. Issues of sex and religion were never a thought. Scouts was not a religious organization.
I have been involved in Scouts close to 15 years as an Adult leader. I am experienced and very knowlegeable in high adventure activities. But my knowlege of the outdoors is no longer welcomed by the now majority of Morman troops because I am a…….woman.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 07:38:36 +0000

Christine, as long as the Boy Scouts have these policies they will be anti-gay. I say this as an Eagle Scout. I don’t like what the organization has become.

By: Christine

Christine — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 01:03:00 +0000

The groups time has past? They don’t serve any useful purpose? Please. My sons are in scouts and it has been a great experience for them. Also, they are learning to care about the people and the world around them. They do service projects and are involved in the community. We are not anti-gay or particularly religious, bur we value much of what is taught and both my husband and I are very involved. I think if one of our boys turned out to be gay, our Pack would have no problem with it. Now they aren’t Boy Scouts yet, so I can’t be certain, but I know we wouldn’t have a problem with it and would fight against any perceived homophobia within our troop. I don’t agree with every leadership decision, but you don’t have to to gain from the scouting experience.

By: Jared

Jared — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 00:31:59 +0000

I am currently a boy scout and I’m also gay. Of course I haven’t exactly “come out” the whole way yet. To be honest scouting is the only thing that is keeping me from being my true self because I am so close to making the rank of Eagle. The more I look into scouting the more I realize how much they truly don’t understand the way things are in the real world. I am actually quite miserable having to pretend to be straight. Is getting the rank of eagle actually worth all the pain it’s causing me?

By: Maurice Lacunza

Maurice Lacunza — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 22:45:25 +0000

All very good comments. Learned a lot about the Scouts and some things that I hadn’t given any thought to. Thanks.

By: Gary (NJ)

Gary (NJ) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:52:17 +0000

I always wondered what they were scouting for?

I have a really cool friend who used to work for the girl scouts and even though their reputation isn’t as bad as the boy scouts, she still said they were a bunch of nazis and she hated it. When they ‘let her go’ they told her ‘she just wasn’t girl scout material’, her response was, “Oh, thank God!” hahaha
This happened back in the 80s and we still laugh about it. How does 4H compare to the scouts? Does one of those Hs stand for homosex? My cousin lived in a rural area and belonged to 4H when we were kids. I thought most of the stuff she had to do was a crock of shit; but, being a gay child, I was generally anti-establishment in just about anything and everything.

By: Taelyn

Taelyn — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 03:34:54 +0000

I grew up a terrified atheist, bisexual “boy” scout. Even though I’m a young woman now, and still bisexual and atheist, it was none of these that drove me from the scouts. It was the nature certain boys were better than others through their merits. Sure it’s good to recognize achievements, but most of the time the BSA did so in a way that discredited those that could not do certain things. Basically, I left the scouts because I was not a jock!

Certainly the fear that the other 3 damning features would be discovered helped that feeling of unbelonging cement itself, but the ridicule I faced for spending 3 years and only making it to 2nd Class was the worst for my self-esteem. On my 4th year anniversary, I accepted my First Class promotion, and quit the same day.

This was not just my own troop, this was the universal feeling I got at multi-regional camps over the course of several years. I felt it in Denver, in Chicago, in Omaha, and in my home of St. Louis, I felt it in Springfield MO.

By: Stephen S.

Stephen S. — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 05:54:34 +0000

Christopher brings up such an obvious point its almost embarrassing. You would think that the homophobes would see putting homosexuals in a position of authority would actually end up VALIDATING their position when the homosexual person screws up and starts preying on innocent children, as they suspect they would (or maybe their scared to death that they might be proven WRONG as a result….heavens to BETSY!!!……morally, upstanding gay people?!?!!) I guess THAT would blow their theory right straight to hell, huh? lol!

By: Wayne Besen

Wayne Besen — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 04:31:02 +0000

Good point John. Thanks for bringing it up. It is worth noting.

By: John

John — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 04:04:53 +0000

This article doesn’t mention the Mormon involvement in scouting. Mormon families complain about how scouting is almost a requirement of the religion and the guff they get if their kids aren’t adequately involved in scouting.