BSA Ends Ban on Gay Scout Leaders

[jpchewy01]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/us/boy-scouts-end-nationwide-ban-on-gay-leaders.html

This is a day that is both bright and long overdue. It is also one that strikes quite close to home. Among the myriad factors that led to my decision to leave the Boy Scouts before attaining the rank of Eagle was the BSA's stance towards members of the gay community. As a queer individual, to hear that people like me were potentially harmful to the children who were my peers and trusted friends was too much. That being said, naturally, this news is quite gladdening for me. Now all they have to do is get rid of that ridiculous "religious beliefs" portion of the Eagle board of review...

 

[Crim]

About time. Lovely that the Churches backing it are being adults about this whole debacle.

 

[Black Noise]

About time. Lovely that the Churches backing it are being adults about this whole debacle.

Can't tell if serious >_>

Literally the Mormon church has been throwing a hissy fit over this for so long, any change of mind has been very recent and most certainly does not release them of responsibility to their past ridiculousness.

 

[Elijah Brockway]

Now all they have to do is get rid of that ridiculous "religious beliefs" portion of the Eagle board of review...

They actually asked people you knew that in their Eagle board of review?

Goodness. I was asked no such questions, a scant 7 months ago.

We need Bac in here to see if he was asked any similar questions.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

I don't remember being asked that question. If I was then I'm sure I made something up.

That type of question tends to happen on a unit by unit basis.

 

[jpchewy01]

Yeah, I hail from a pretty conservative area so we may have been a bit more stringent with our Board of Review. All of my friends who went for Eagle were asked up-front about their religious beliefs.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

I have no issue with the question so long as "none of the above" is an acceptable answer.

 

[jpchewy01]

Unfortunately, it wasn't. The leaders felt that it was a "lazy answer".

 

[Outlander]

I went to a scout interest meeting when I was a kid. Kinda glad I didn't join.

 

[jpchewy01]

The worst part was that a lot of people who would have otherwise have identified as atheist or agnostic internalized that opinion and went through a lot of pains to come up with ridiculous quasi-religious worldviews just to please their superiors.

 

[Elijah Brockway]

I come from the middle of Kansas, in an area that is generally rather conservative.

I think the people in our council just go "Eh, we don't need to care about that." these days.

 

[Dmitri]

It varies on the troop and the review board. Some ask, some don't. Mine didn't. I was able to get to Eagle despite not hiding the fact that I'm agnostic. Granted my review board tended to focus on the morals of the candidates rather than if they had certain labels.

 

[Elijah Brockway]

That's the way it should be, really.

 

[Cailst]

I don't have any memory of that question. Though my project was for a church so that may have been enough for them to guess.

 

[Elijah Brockway]

You know, I didn't consider that as being a factor.

 

[The Derp of Hooves]

Never made eagle myself, but I'm glad this happened... I'm just disappointed it took this long to do, whatever happened to equality hmm?

 

[Mr.Votaw]

Was in the Boy Scouts briefly, I distinctly remember the Scout Master's kid earning a majority of the awards to be had, along with the whole forcing religion down everyone's throat.

Left quick, didn't look back.