After a two year review of their current policy of not allowing gay scouts or adult volunteers, the Boy Scouts of America have decided to maintain that policy. I’m guessing their anti-atheist policy wasn’t even considered.
The Scouts cited support from parents as a key reason for keeping the policy and expressed hope that the prolonged debate over it might now subside. Bitter reactions from gay-rights activists suggested that result was unlikely.
The Scouts’ national spokesman, Deron Smith, told The Associated Press that an 11-member special committee, formed discreetly by top Scout leaders in 2010, came to the conclusion that the exclusion policy “is absolutely the best policy” for the 102-year-old organization.
Per a 2000 US Supreme Court decision the scouts are free to do that, and their right to exclude the LGBT community makes sense on the grounds that they are a private organization and there are very few federal protections of LGBT rights.That needs to change.The Boy Scouts of America receives millions of dollars in direct and indirect federal and local government funding every year. Attaining the rank of Eagle Scout is very advantageous for service academy or ROTC applications and it allows for enlisting in the US armed forces at an increased rank. In the post-DADT military, it would seem to be counter intuitive to give special privilege to graduates of homophobic indoctrination programs and government funds, whether direct or indirect, should not be going to organizations that discriminate against some tax payers.
It’s two bad there isn’t a Girl Scouts for boys…
