And the Right Losses Another Battle

[BSB]

Boy Scouts close to ending ban on gay members, leaders

By Pete Williams, Justice Correspondent, NBC News

The Boy Scouts of America, one of the nation’s largest private youth organizations, is actively considering an end to its decades-long policy of banning gay scouts or scout leaders, according to scouting officials and outsiders familiar with internal discussions.



If adopted by the organization’s board of directors, it would represent a profound change on an issue that has been highly controversial -- one that even went to the US Supreme Court. The new policy, now under discussion, would eliminate the ban from the national organization’s rules, leaving local sponsoring organizations free to decide for themselves whether to admit gay scouts.

“The chartered organizations that oversee and deliver scouting would accept membership and select leaders consistent with their organization’s mission, principles or religious beliefs,” according to Deron Smith, a spokesman for the Boy Scouts’ national organization.

Individual sponsors and parents “would be able to choose a local unit which best meets the needs of their families,” Smith said.

The discussion of a potential change in policy is nearing its final stages, according to outside scouting supporters. If approved, the change could be announced as early as next week, after the BSA's national board holds a regularly scheduled meeting.

Only seven months ago, the Boy Scouts affirmed a policy of banning gay members, after a nearly two-year examination of the issue by a committee of volunteers convened by national leaders of the Boy Scouts of America, known as the BSA.

In a statement last July affirming the ban, its national executive board called it “the best policy for the organization.”

But since then, a scouting official said, local chapters have been urging a reconsideration. "We're a grassroots organization. This is a response to what's happening at the local level," the official said.

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[Christians4LessGvt]

Since all this possible change would do is allow
sponsors of local troops the freedom to decide
the matter for themselves....

Oh i am sure lots and lots of parents will be lining up to send
their young sons out on weekend camping trips with homos!

Ha Ha Ha......

[Xavier_Onassis]

In my Boy Scout troop, there was this ancient crippled WWI vet named Harvey who attended every meeting. He must have been over 70 and was confined to a wheelchair. His role was to lead the Scouts in saying the Pledge and reciting the Scout Oath. He never said much of anything to any of the Scouts and as I recall, he only discussed leading his recitations with the scoutmasters. He was generally treated with great respect as a brave old wounded soldier. Just like the idea that Batman and Robin might have a thing going between them never occurred to anyone, the idea that old Harvey was gay never occurred to anyone, either. Perhaps he was and liked looking at the young scouts. Outside of the Veterans' Day parade and the scouts, Harvey had no life. They said that his widowed younger sister looked after him and did his shopping. I heard that old Harvey lived to be 98. When Troop 211 merged with the "Colored" troop and then divided into three new troops, Harvey attended all the meetings. At my HS reunion, a buddy who never left town told me that Harvey lived to be 95.

I don't recall any discussion of being "queer" related one way or another to the Scouts. 

[Plane]

This solution is genius!

Troops that serve gay membership will have seaprate and equal status !