Boy Scouts leaders push back decision on lifting gay ban
Updated 9:11 PM ET
IRVING, Texas Caught in an ideological crossfire, the Boy Scouts of America is putting off until May a decision on whether to ease its policy of excluding gays. Whatever the organization eventually does, it's likely to anger major constituencies and worsen schisms within Scouting.
The delay, which the Scouts attributed to "the complexity of this issue," was announced Wednesday after closed-door deliberations by the BSA's national executive board. Under consideration was a proposal to ease the longstanding ban on gays by allowing sponsors of local troops to decide for themselves on the membership of gay Scouts and adult leaders.
As the board met over three days at a hotel near Dallas, it became clear that the proposal would be unacceptable to large numbers of impassioned Scouting families and advocacy groups on both the left and right.
The iconic youth organization is now deeply entangled in the broader cultural and political conflicts over such issues as same-sex marriage and religious freedom. Tilting toward either side will probably alienate the other, and a midway balancing act will be difficult.
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Gay-rights supporters contend that no Scout units anywhere should exclude gays, and vowed to maintain pressure on the BSA's corporate donors to achieve that goal. Some conservatives, including religious leaders whose churches sponsor troops, warned of mass defections if the ban were even partially eased. They urged supporters to flood headquarters with phone calls.
"In the past two weeks, Scouting has received an outpouring of feedback from the American public," said the BSA's national spokesman, Deron Smith. "It reinforces how deeply people care about Scouting and how passionate they are about the organization."
The BSA "needs time for a more deliberate review of its membership policy," Smith added. He said the board would prepare a resolution to be voted on by the 1,400 voting members of the BSA national council at a meeting during the week of May 20 in Grapevine, Texas.
The organization had announced last week that it was considering allowing Scout troops to decide whether to allow gay membership, ensuring that the executive board meeting would be in the national spotlight.
Learning that a decision would be deferred, gay-rights leaders assailed the BSA.
"Every day that the Boy Scouts of America delay action is another day that discrimination prevails," said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. "Young Americans, gay and straight, are hurt by the inaction associated with today's news."
"A Scout is supposed to be brave, and the Boy Scouts failed to be brave today," said Jennifer Tyrrell, an Ohio mother ousted as a den leader of her son's Cub Scout pack because she's a lesbian.
"They failed us yet again," she told The Associated Press. "Putting this off until May only ensures other gay kids and gay parents are discarded."
Tyrrell was among several current and former Scouts and supporters who rallied outside BSA national headquarters Monday and delivered petitions opposing the policy.
Conservative leaders made clear they would keep pressure on the BSA ahead of the May meeting.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council said his group would continue warning the BSA "about the grave consequences that would result if they were to compromise their moral standards in the face of threats from corporate elites and homosexual activists."
About 70 percent of all Scout units are sponsored by religious denominations, including many by conservative faiths that have supported the ban, including the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Mormon church.
The delay was welcomed by Southern Baptist leaders, some of whom had said they would urge their churches to seek alternatives to the Boy Scouts if the ban were eliminated.
In comments to the Baptist Press, the denomination's official news agency, SBC President Fred Luter suggested that "prayers of the righteous" played a role in the BSA decision.
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1. We are all sinners and we all judge, however wrong it may be.
2. Believing in God, is great, I do, and every human should too.
3. Believing in God/being morally straight does not mean judging homosexuals, or teaching our children to do the same. While it isn't right in God's eyes, God is the only one who can pass judgement. We are taught to treat others as we would like to be treated.
4. It seems that homosexuality is being confused with sexual predators/perverts. We should do all we can to prevent ourselves and our children from being harmed by these kinds of people.
This is the bottom line.
But according to Dr. Loree Sutton, a psychiatrist and retired Army brigadier general, rapes are not about sex but are instead fueled by aggression and domination. The crime is almost an animalistic demonstration that the predator "owns" the prey. Many male-on-male rapes in the military are group attacks. Some involve drugging the victims.
"It's not about gay sex. Typically the predators are heterosexual men who have this need to assert power, control and dominance," Sutton said. "It's similar to the dynamics of what happens with incest — those family bonds, the trust, the loyalty. I mean, in the military, loyalty becomes this huge factor and that is so difficult for men and women to sort out."
Again, it is not about gay sex. If I were you and had sons in the Boy Scouts I would be more worried about the "Stepford" family type guy with the church going wife and the freakish children.
If some gay guy figured out he was gay after he had children, he can model whatever he wants for his kids, but I do NOT want my grandsons immitating any gay guys. I do not want my grandsons being brought up with any idea that gay is OK. In my book, gay is definitely not ok. If that is your thing, you can do your thing somewhere else, but not around my grandsons. You are not at all welcome to be around them, or me for that matter. I will tolerate gays. I will not hate them or do them harm, but I will not given in to their temper tantrums when they don't get their way.
See? You bigots want it both ways: discrimate AND free stuff. Sorry ball sack, doesnt work that way...
Being gay is not being queer.
Being gay is not being a pedophile.
Pedophilia is a straight condition.
Welcome to the 21st century, teabagger.
Girl Guides are for Girls.
Decide what you are before selecting the group to join. When you are at the Restroom in a Mall, you have to decide which one to use.