The Boy Scouts does not impress me
Xander was a boy scout for approximately 2 days before we found out how anti-gay and anti-atheist they are. It was definitely a parenting fail on our part since we didn't do the research on this until after he joined, but at least our relationship with the Bigot Scouts was fleeting.
It was big news recently that the BSA is considering allowing gay members. Great! Kind of! Unfortunately, they will still not allow gay adults to be scout leaders, since of course all gay people are pedophiles. It's clear that their attitude about homosexuality hasn't changed at all, and that this BIG STEP they're taking is an attempt to appease their critics. So yeah, not impressed. I do like that people are fighting back though, as evidenced in this (local, yay!) story: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/05/18/when-scouts-banned-his-mom-boy-left-too.html
Even if they completely lifted their ban on gays, there would still be that pesky intolerance they have towards non-believers. I wonder what the chances are that they'll eventually lift that ban as well, considering the pope is totes cool with us now. I think that if they happened to become completely inclusive, I would still have trouble supporting them. Open homosexuality and atheism has been around way too long for me to be able to believe that any lifted bans would be done because of a true change of heart, rather than grudgingly "getting with the times".
Of course, one common argument that supports the BSA is that they're a private organization and can do whatever they want - but it's a really shitty argument. Country clubs could still ban Jews and blacks if they want (as was the custom in the 50's and 60's), but the public simply won't tolerate that kind of bigotry anymore, so it makes little business sense.
So whatever, BSA - I don't need your stupid organization anyway. We can just have Xander join Satan's Youth Army or something.
It was big news recently that the BSA is considering allowing gay members. Great! Kind of! Unfortunately, they will still not allow gay adults to be scout leaders, since of course all gay people are pedophiles. It's clear that their attitude about homosexuality hasn't changed at all, and that this BIG STEP they're taking is an attempt to appease their critics. So yeah, not impressed. I do like that people are fighting back though, as evidenced in this (local, yay!) story: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/05/18/when-scouts-banned-his-mom-boy-left-too.html
Even if they completely lifted their ban on gays, there would still be that pesky intolerance they have towards non-believers. I wonder what the chances are that they'll eventually lift that ban as well, considering the pope is totes cool with us now. I think that if they happened to become completely inclusive, I would still have trouble supporting them. Open homosexuality and atheism has been around way too long for me to be able to believe that any lifted bans would be done because of a true change of heart, rather than grudgingly "getting with the times".
Of course, one common argument that supports the BSA is that they're a private organization and can do whatever they want - but it's a really shitty argument. Country clubs could still ban Jews and blacks if they want (as was the custom in the 50's and 60's), but the public simply won't tolerate that kind of bigotry anymore, so it makes little business sense.
So whatever, BSA - I don't need your stupid organization anyway. We can just have Xander join Satan's Youth Army or something.
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