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Friday NEWS DUMP: Boy Scouts Propose Ending Ban On Gays

With all that’s going on in Boston, nothing else seems to matter. That’s probably why the Boy Scouts chose today to announce a proposal to end the ban on gays.

The Scouts announced Friday that it would submit this proposal to the roughly 1,400 voting members of its National Council at a meeting in Texas the week of May 20.

Earlier, the BSA had indicated it might give local Scout units the option of admitting gays as both youth members and adult leaders, or continuing to exclude them

The BSA said Friday it changed course due in part to results of surveys sent out this year to members of the scouting community.

Gay-rights groups have demanded a complete lifting of the ban. Some churches and conservative groups want it maintained.

The Boy Scouts See The Light

Hey Boy Scouts! Guess what? You’ve had gay scouts and gay scoutmasters for years. You’ve given them badges and congratulated them on excellent fundraising and (get this) rewarded them for exemplary moral behavior, helping others, being patriotic and making their parents proud. These gay scouts have also met legislators, built structures for community organizations, worked at soup kitchens, told jokes, endured camp-outs and Klondike Derbies, and generally represented the organization with pride.

So what do you do? First of all, you deny that gay scouts and scoutmasters have a place in your organization, even though they’ve done exemplary work. Then you say that gay scouts do not reflect the vision that you have of what a healthy American boy and a committed adult male are all about and you begin to exclude them from your group. Is exclusion such a hallowed American value that you feel the need to protect it with your reputation? In a country where communal groups such as the Scouts are seeing shrinking enrollment, does it make sense to exclude people who actually want to help, and have helped throughout your history?

Now you say that you’re considering scrapping your discriminatory and hateful policies. Good for you. I will give you all the credit when you really make this decision final. In the end, you really have no choice.

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