Boy Scouts of America Reaffirm Gay Ban

[Correction]

NPR taught me this morning that over a quarter of all scout troops are under the auspices of Mormon congregations. So there's that.

[Lucavi]

So the scouts were invented to give all those boys something to do that came from the masses of sons that the mormon fathers bred from having 15 wives apiece. Makes perfect sense.

[Gadritan]

Was in the scouts for a bit when I was younger.

First time camping the scout master or w/e the fk it is brought coolers full of beer and a portable tv for the fathers that came and had nothing planned for us to do other than run rampant in the woods while they got drunk. Half of us left within the first hour.

Never went back to any boy scouts shit again after that.

I've never been able to take them seriously since then. I was all of 7 I think, and I still remember how pissed off me and my dad were. In fact, that's one of the few things that I can even remember from that age. I would have rather had a scout master with a pink boa walking on his tip toes that actually wanted to teach the kids and gave a shit about us than some drunk bastard any day.

[Acevalefor]

So the scouts were invented to give all those boys something to do that came from the masses of sons that the mormon fathers bred from having 15 wives apiece. Makes perfect sense.

That would make sense if the mormon church hadn't taken 100 years to finally subvert the boy scouts. It wasn't until the 1960s when they started taking over. But even today, only 60% of the boy scout troops operate in and are funded by religious organizations.

I wonder what the church did with all their kids before there was boy scouts and missionettes...

[Mazmaz]

According to George Takei there was no meeting.

http://www.allegiancemusical.com/blo...rally-straight

[Indalecia]

As someone who was an Eagle Scout, this shit is just silly. In my troop, we had at least 2 guys that were gayer than pink rainbows and we didn't give a shit. We were fishing and camping and all that crap and no one gave a good god damned.

Fuck, his name was BJ Woods. How could he NOT turn out gay?

[Mrbeansman]

So where's the review about the policy of no atheists?

[Mathayus]

I didn't notice any gays in scouting when I was in it, but I was Eagle Scout at 15 and out. I didn't learn anything useful and I don't have any contact with anyone I met there anymore. The whole experience was miserable and a waste of my time.

[kuronosan]

How is this group still relevant?

[Qalbert]

Speaking of relevance, my friend has one of the old merit badge books for computer science, and it has requirements such as:
Visit a place that has a computer.
Know the difference between a Hard Disk and a Floppy Disk.
Know the various parts, Monitor, CPU, Keyboard, Mouse.
etc.

[hey]

Man, i should have joined the boy scouts, i could have got that merit badge so easy.

[arus2001]

Fucking old world XBOX achievements.

[SephYuyX]

How is this group still relevant?

I hate hardcore religous people just as much as the next person, but when you look at just the basics, the values it teaches, it's a good thing to have. Ignore the body in the bread if you want, but you cant dismiss the family values, respect towards others, etcetcetc.

Same thing with the BSA. There are horrible troops out there like Gadritan mentioned, and then there are really good troops which teach the same sort of values, but also help in other fields such as leadership, business, health, citizenship, arts and crafts, sports, and the list goes on and on.

Youll have your crazy super involved by the book scouters, and then youll have the people that are there to have fun, and want to accomplish things starting at a young age.

Why is it still relevent? Because it teaches good morals and values, helps kids, teens, and young adults excel in their fields, and gets them ready for the real world. Scouting is a military training ground as well, thats one of their biggest feeders. Big business and government also get a lot of their members from scouting because they know the environment they were brought up in helped them get ready for their fields.

I have been in scouting since I was 5 years old with tiger cubs, and still remain as an adult advisor. I can say ive seen a lot of good kids grow up to fine young adults and excel where theyre at, and ive also seen the opposite where kids come in, dont have any interest, dont have support from their parents, drop out, and dont do as well in life. Scouting is heavily influenced by family, they go hand in hand and without one, the child tends not to succeed. I met my best friend in scouts, and we did everything together, however he didnt finish, and the only difference between us was that his family was not supportive; we helped as much as possible, but it just wasnt enough for him. Uh.. how did I get here? I think I was comparing the number of people who actually "finish" scouting, which I will get to in a minute.

In any case.. my point is that the government, businesses, and people in general look towards scouts as their next leaders.

There have been near 100 million boy scounts since early 1900 in the USA alone, and out of that many boys, only 3% end up completing all the way through and obtain the rank of Eagle. I am one of those fortunate enough to make it that far, and one of even fewer to make it even further. I owe a lot to scouting, and a lot to the ranks ive achieved; the schools ive gone to, the businesses ive been accepted in, the partnerships ive made, have all been influnced by the fact that i'm an Eagle.

Scouting I believe is very relevent, and a great foot in the door for the rest of your life; though man.. the kids I see come in to scouting keep getting dumber and dumber. I fear for the world as im pretty sure the world is getting dumber every generation.


As for the gay thing, I never knew any one in scouting who cared one way or the other. As with the military, there were still plenty of gay people around though. I dont recall any leaders, but there were other boys who were and they all got on fine.

[Correction]

As with the military, there were still plenty of gay people around though.

And as with the military, the BSA deserves tons of shit for their stated national policies that strictly exclude gays because a book written by their magical skyfather tells them they're a wicked people and therefore not qualified to be tomorrow's leaders.

Fuck your apologetic stance on their bigotry.

[Acevalefor]

And as with the military, the BSA deserves tons of shit for their stated national policies that strictly exclude gays because a book written by their magical skyfather tells them they're a wicked people and therefore not qualified to be tomorrow's leaders.

Fuck your apologetic stance on their bigotry.

Just to clarify, the magical book doesn't say anything about gay people being wicked...the human interpretation has bastardized the text and subverted the meaning.

People are still bigots though.

[archibaldcrane]

I had a good time as a kid in cub and boy scouts, camping and shit, shooting trap, just getting to be boys and fucking off, whatever. Merit badges were fun to accumulate like pokemon, whatever.

When I was in scouts I had no idea about their gays policy (I barely knew what gay meant). My dad was a troop leader for a few years.

I'm planning on having kids, and I'd consider having my boys join scouts if they wanted. But if I got a whiff of any parent or kid getting kicked out or excluded for being gay, I'd yank my kid out of there so fast. Given the amount of publicity this gay ban has received lately, it may not even be possible for kids to be delightfully unaware of the policy like I was as a kid. If that's the case, if it's "dad why aren't gay people allowed in boy scouts" - yeah, fuck that, I'm out.

[hey]

Just to clarify, the magical book doesn't say anything about gay people being wicked...the human interpretation has bastardized the text and subverted the meaning.

Uh, you might want to try rereading it.

For example:

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

plenty more at http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/gay/long.htm

[Ashmada]

Fully understood what you're saying but if the refusal to accept gays rubs you the wrong way then there are alternatives to the well-known Boy Scouts. You don't need to deny your kids the experience of the great outdoors simply because one organization refuses to change policy.

What happened to the good ol' "dump your kids in the forest armed only with a prison shank and a diagram of a bear's (and an ecologist's) weak points (hint: genitalia for the former, venom sac at the base of the throat for the latter)"?

That's how you learn "the great outdoors", not with that newfangled scouting thing.



Seriously, though, quite ironic that an organisation based on this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rt_2_cover.gif
is accusing gays to be pedophiles.

[Qalbert]

Uh, you might want to try rereading it.

For example:


plenty more at http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/gay/long.htm

dunno the context but to play devil's (god's?) advocate the abomination seems to refer to the act itself. 'love the sinner, hate the sin' etc. obviously that's not how most christians see it though, so it's kind of a moot point, who has time to read correctly when you're imposing morality and being intolerant.

[hey]

obviously that's not how most christians see it though.

Probably because the bible repeatedly tells people to kill gays.

The bible is very clear about it's hatred of gays. People are not misinterpreting it. It really fucking says to kill homosexuals.