Boy Scouts decide to keep banning gay members
CBS/iStockphoto
(AP) NEW YORK - After a confidential two-year review, the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday 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.
Smith said the committee, comprised of professional scout executives and adult volunteers, was unanimous in its conclusion — preserving a long-standing policy that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 and has remained controversial ever since.
Boy Scouts' "perversion files" ordered released
As a result of the committee's decision, the Scouts' national executive board will take no further action on a recently submitted resolution asking for reconsideration of the membership policy.
The Scouts' chief executive, Bob Mazzuca, contended that most Scout families support the policy, which applies to both leaders and Scouts.
"The vast majority of the parents of youth we serve value their right to address issues of same-sex orientation within their family, with spiritual advisers and at the appropriate time and in the right setting," Mazzuca said. "We fully understand that no single policy will accommodate the many diverse views among our membership or society."
The president of the largest U.S. gay-rights group, Chad Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign, depicted the Scouts' decision as "a missed opportunity of colossal proportions."
"With the country moving toward inclusion, the leaders of the Boy Scouts of America have instead sent a message to young people that only some of them are valued," he said. "They've chosen to teach division and intolerance."
The Scouts did not identify the members of the special committee that studied the issue, but said in a statement that they represented "a diversity of perspectives and opinions."
"The review included forthright and candid conversation and extensive research and evaluations — both from within Scouting and from outside of the organization," the statement said.
The announcement suggests that hurdles may be high for a couple of members of the national executive board — Ernst & Young CEO James Turley and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson — who have recently indicated they would try to work from within to change the policy. Both of their companies have been commended by gay-rights groups for gay-friendly employment policies.
Stephenson is on track to become president of the Scouts' national board in 2014, and will likely face continued pressure from gay-rights groups to try to end the exclusion policy. Asked for comment on Tuesday about the Scouts' decision to keep the policy, AT&T did not refer to Stephenson's situation specifically.
"We don't agree with every policy of every organization we support, nor would we expect them to agree with us on everything," the company said. "Our belief is that change at any organization must come from within to be successful and sustainable."
A statement from the executive committee of the Scouts' national executive board alluded to the Turley-Stephenson developments.
"Scouting believes that good people can personally disagree on this topic and still work together to achieve the life-changing benefits to youth through Scouting," the statement said. "While not all board members may personally agree with this policy, and may choose a different direction for their own organizations, BSA leadership agrees this is the best policy for the organization."
Since 2000, the Boy Scouts have been targeted with numerous protest campaigns and run afoul of some local nondiscrimination laws because of the membership policy.
One ongoing protest campaign involves Jennifer Tyrrell, the Ohio mother of a 7-year-old Cub Scout who was ousted as a Scout den mother because she is lesbian.
Change.org, an online forum supporting activist causes, says more than 300,000 people have signed its petition urging the Scouts to reinstate Tyrrell and abandon the exclusion policy. The petition is to be delivered to the Scouts' national headquarters in Irving, Texas, on Wednesday.
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Port Authority releases photo of One WTC workers at dizzying heights
- Washington state bridge collapses 20 Photos
- Bridge collapse blamed on tractor-trailer 292 Comments
- Best U.S. beaches 2013 10 Photos
- Frantic 911 calls reveal chaos in Okla., following tornado
- No fatalities in I-5 bridge collapse in NW Wash. 141 Comments
- Clean-up efforts underway in Okla. 29 Photos
- Judge: Ariz. sheriff's office profiles Latinos
attempting to destroy our traditional Biblical morals and values in the area of seual morality. PTL!
Three main studies are cited by "gay rights" activists in support of their argument2—Hamer's X-chromosome research, LeVay's study of the hypothalamus, and Bailey and Pillard's study of identical twins who were homosexuals. In all three cases, the researchers had a vested interest in obtaining a certain outcome because they were homosexuals themselves. More importantly, their studies did not stand up to scientific scrutiny by other researchers. Also, "the media typically do not explain the methodological flaws in these studies, and they typically oversimplify the results." There is no reliable evidence to date that homosexual behaviour is determined by a person's genes.
To the extent that biological or social factors may contribute to a person's bent toward homosexual behaviour, this does not excuse it. Some people have a strong bent towards stealing or abuse of alcohol, but they still choose to engage or not engage in this behaviour—the law rightly holds them accountable.
The final report of the BUWA task force states "that a person becomes a homosexual ultimately by choosing to be involved in same-sex activity . . . . This is in contrast to innate characteristics such as gender and ethnicity."7 The report affirms that "the Bible is clear that sin involves choice, and it unequivocally condemns homosexual behaviour as sin."
It has been noted that gay activists at the time adopted many of Szasz's arguments against the psychiatric system, but also that Szasz had written in 1965 that: "I believe it is very likely that homosexuality is, indeed, a disease in the second sense [expression of psychosexual immaturity] and perhaps sometimes even in the stricter sense [a condition somewhat similar to ordinary organic maladies].
------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Szasz said a lot of things. That does not make him right. He advocated that there should be no defense of mental illness in criminal cases. The courts have emphatically rejected that view. And a lot has happened in medicine since Szasz wrote 47 years ago. As I said elsewhere, there is strong evidence that sexual orientation has a lot to do with the progesterone level in the mother during gestation. That means it is not a birth defect, it is simply one of several expected outcomes that may occur from a pregnancy.
As for your man Thomas Szasz, it was his groups that open the doors for the affliction of psychosexual immaturity to roam freely among the population, if it were not for him the gays would still be in the Asylum for theirs and our protection.
Rightontarget, if you look at history with the Spartans, the downfall was that they did not leave a child to replace them. It was never encouraged or tolerated for centuries. If you read my previous post about Gays, they were identify as C. The Boy Scouts encouraged self-confidence to mature and to take responsibility of their future. America should not be forced to verify who is gay and who is not, just to get special treatment from the government, It's not fair for the rest of the country to be handicapped by immaturity.
***************************************************
So, your fear is that everybody will turn gay and leave no children to replace them??? Seriously??? (How stupid is that!!) All becuse of lack of discrimination against them?? That's B.S.!! The gay community poses no threat whatsoever to the human race. Many adopt or have children. Our population is not being threatened in any way. They just want to be able to choose who they love and live with themselves without haveing such things dictated to them by a bunch of selfrighteous jerks who think they can decide what is "acceptable" or "normal" for society. (Sooner or later they will figure out that they don't have that kind of power.) Being gay was "identified" "as an expression of psychosexual immaturity"?? WHO CARES? So that doesn't mean they were "identified" CORRECTLY! That was just somebody's opinion at the time. TIMES CHANGE! It seems to me that the gay community is beginning to "take responsibility of their future" by speaking out and working to achieve equality. This affects nobody except for those who want to control other's lives in order to maintain their OWN version of what THEY think society "should" be. (control freaks)
Rightontarget, if you look at history with the Spartans, the downfall was that they did not leave a child to replace them. It was never encouraged or tolerated for centuries.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Your fantasies about Greek history are as far fetched as your fantasies about gays and lesbians. First, Sparta had a problem in its social structure. Citizenship was inherited by blood. Thus the Helots, who formed the lower class, were disenfranchised and disaffected as they could never become citizens and have the rights of citizens. Second, in a war with Thebes in 371 BCE, Sparta lost a huge battle at Leuctra. It never recovered militarily or economically from this disaster. Thebes became the dominant power (over Sparta and other city-states) until Philip II of Macedon swept in and conquered all. Sparta held on a for a few more centuries, but its raison d'etre was gone and eventually successive Helot revolts took their toll and the city collapsed.
Try to keep to reality, please.
But let me put it this way. Leadville, Colorado in 1880 had a population of 40,000 people. Now it has about 2,600. The "bloodline" did not run out. The economic reason for its boom ran out. Now Sparta had no port, no industry, nothing but its military. When that was defeated by the Thebans, and more so when the Macedonians became the military power of Greece, Sparta could not exist by being the military strong man and it had no other means of supports. So it slowly died as did the ghost towns of the American west.
by krotec54 July 18, 2012 8:59 PM EDT
They were entertainers and individuals with mental disorders, they were never given the status as being highly accepted, it was shamed but tolerated, they did not push for any special demands or desire to work with kids, it was a hush, kept in the closet and nobody care to talk about their problem out of respect for their affliction. The insane asylum was not fully supported by the government, most families paid for the treatment, not everyone had the money to put a family member in for treatment, one of the reasons why the asylums were closed Now, with the demands to redefine marriage and the in your face I have a right to be with your kids, has built an animosity towards those that feel they have the freedom to recruit the weak minded youth to a cessation in life with the alternative lifestyle. This is the opposite of what was intended for this country.
**********************************************
OMG!!!! If anybody belings in an "insane asylum", it's YOU!!! Good Grief!!!!! Being gay is an "affliction" and they belong in an "asylum"??? And they "feel they have the freedom to recruit the weak minded youth to a cessation in life with the alternative lifestyle". Really????? They are "recruting" people to their lifestyle. OMG!!!! Go back on your meds!!!! (or at least have the dosage increased) Those voices in your head are waaaaaaaaaaaaay too loud! LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, people used to have some very unreasonable and crazy preceptions back in the day. At least we are able to LEARN from history how NOT to act. People used to be put in "asylums" for all kinds of bogus reasons. Still doesn't make it ok!!!!!!!
Ultraskygod, I am from the Show Me State. Gays were never allowed in the military in America, it was not gentlemen like as a soldier to act that way towards another male. Gays were place in asylums for their protection until the 1960's when some doctors that could not find the cause of this illness claimed that it is not a threat to him or herself or society. Now we see the true effects of what it has created between the sane and the insane.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is getting absurd. A man who apparently speaks English as his native language (he is from Missouri after all) but is unable to put together an English sentence in any of his posts undertakes to tell the rest of America what is what.
Krotec, did you enjoy the movie West Side Story or Cabaret? How about the paintings of Van Gogh or Gauguin, or the plays A Streetcar Named Desire or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof? Or even Moby Dick, or Walt Whitman's O Captain, My Captain?
The three men who collaborated to create lyrics and songs and dances for one of the loveliest dramas of heterosexual love (West Side Story, in case you did not get it) were all gay. The artists, playwrights and authors I mentioned - and many, many more - are all gay, even Herman Melville, author of the quintessential American novel, was gay. This is all far, far from your fantasy of them being locked up in insane asylums. J. Edgar Hoover was as gay as they come and he led the FBI for thirty odd years.
Visit reality some day. It is very interesting.
Gays and pedophiles are in the same class as "abnormal behaviors".
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You just don't get it. The DSM, the world standard or mental and emotional disorders, does not classify homosexual orientation as abnormal. Pedophilia, however, is classified as a sexual disorder and has the code designation 302.2. The definition requires a male older than the child by at least five years and the child being prepubescent.
What is wrong with so many of you that you do not understand the enormous difference between being gay or lesbian and being a pedophile?
The Boy Scouts of America believes that a scout has responsibility to first his god, next his country (the USA), and then his family. Religion is a major part of the mentality of boy scouts. Homosexuality is clearly against most, if not all major religions. If you don't like it, you shouldn't have anything to do with the BSA.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sexual orientation and religious interest are totally unrelated. Now, two major religions - Christianity and Islam - may be hostile to gays and lesbians, but that does not make the reverse true.