Boy Scouts’ Policy on Gays Being Challenged Again

Godfather Politics
VERBATIM POST

Will liberals ever get it? The Boy Scouts is not the place to be propagandizing for the gay lifestyle. The Boy Scouts’ membership has said so, its leadership has said so, and the Supreme Court has said so.

Yet, here we go again.

Eagle Scout Zach Wahls, who was raised by two lesbians and wrote a book called “My Two Moms,” has presented a petition signed online by 275,000 people to the Boy Scouts asking for the reinstatement of Jennifer Tyrrell, a lesbian, as den mother of her 7-year-old son’s Cub Scout pack.

Tyrrell was relieved of her position as den mother in April because Scout rules prohibit gays in the organization.

In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled, in a case brought by a gay former scoutmaster, that the Boys Scouts as a private organization can bar gays as troop leaders. The Boy Scouts is the parent organization of the Cub Scouts.

Boy Scout officials accepted Wahls’ petition during their National Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla., earlier today, and they met briefly with Wahls to discuss the petition and the position of the Scout leadership.

Wahls said the meeting was “productive.”

“It went well. It was an honest conversation, but a productive one,” Wahls told ABCNews.com, adding that the representatives seemed “receptive.”

“The fact that the meeting happened is a really positive indicator,” he said.

Scout PR director Deron Smith said in a statement, “The Boy Scouts of America teaches its members to treat those with different opinions with courtesy and respect at all times. … Scouting maintains that its youth development program is not the appropriate environment to introduce or discuss, in any way, same-sex attraction. Parents and caregivers should have the right to decide when and how to discuss the issue with their children.”

Wahls said he thought the policy would eventually change, citing President Obama’s recent “evolution” on gay marriage.

There’s a reason the Boy Scouts have a policy of no gays in leadership positions, and it’s a pretty obvious one. Just like most parents would agree it’s a bad idea to let a heterosexual male go on a camping trip alone with a bunch of pubescent Girl Scouts, so it’s a bad idea to let a gay man go on a camping trip or be alone with a bunch of young boys. If anything, it’s a worse idea.

The gay rights movement, in its incessant efforts to force Americans to endorse their lifestyle, may be focusing on lesbians in Scouting because a woman, even a lesbian, is generally not seen as a threat to young boys, whereas the perceived risk rises with gay males.

A 2002 study titled “Child Molestation and the Homosexual Movement,” by former California legislator Steve Baldwin, found a higher per-capita rate of child molestation among gays than heterosexuals. Recall also the Catholic Church’s child molestation scandals, in which the overwhelming majority of cases involved homosexual acts.

The Scouts are right that their program is not the place for exploring alternative sexuality. Their program is designed to help boys grow into productive adults with the confidence and leadership that comes from mastering a wide variety of challenging skills.

It’s a private club, as the Supreme Court pointed out. If gays want something similar that allows their lifestyle, they could easily form their own group.

But the gay rights movement wants access to the Boy Scouts for the same reason it wants access to public schools: a new, vulnerable, impressionable young audience that can be persuaded to support or even join what is at best a controversial lifestyle choice.

Ultimately, it is an effort to erode traditional morality, recruit young people and force those who disagree with the gay lifestyle to acquiesce to demands for social and political favoritism.