A lead story earlier this week in our local paper, the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus got me angry at the Boy Scouts of America, and their so-called "policy" regarding gay people.
Two women who are long-time partners, and whose son has been a Cub Scout for a while, were told they could not be "leaders" in scout activities because of their sexual orientation, which (I guess it goes without saying from the BSA's perspective) would undoubtedly result in them "pushing their lifestyle" on the boys.
Our own kids are way past scout age and had no interest in it when they were younger. I'm straight and this story has no direct impact on me other than it pissed me off. It also reminded me of a story from my own youth, where I was almost refused admission to the Cub Scouts because of my religion, or lack thereof.
From the Times Argus, December 29th:
(complete article here)
EAST MONTPELIER – Cate Wirth said Tuesday she was "taken aback" recently when she and her longtime civil union partner, Elizabeth Wirth, were turned down as Cub Scout leaders because of their sexual orientation.
"I was speechless," Wirth said, recounting the meeting where the district director was asking for parent volunteers, but told the gay couple they could not be leaders because "we wouldn't want you pushing your lifestyle on the boys."
The district director, Erik Tanney, referred media calls to Richard Stockton, Scout executive for the Green Mountain Council. Stockton did not dispute the allegations made by Wirth.
"That is the national policy," Stockton said. "The national policy of the Boy Scouts of America is we don't accept gays and lesbians as volunteers."
Of course, there's no news here, because in 2000, The United States Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America can in fact discriminate in this way, excluding gay and lesbian parents from leadership roles, which from what I understand means having contact with children other than your own. The Boy Scouts of America also bars atheists from leadership roles. (More on the religion thing at the end of the diary...)
Continuing:
She said at the recent meeting, when she and Elizabeth volunteered to serve, the conversation with Tanney initially went well. She said they told Tanney that they needed training because they don't have lots of outdoor experience, and he indicated that was possible.
"As we were starting to leave, I said to Elizabeth, given what we know about the Boy Scouts, we should tell him about us so we don't run into something down the line," she said. "I guess I was just being naïve."
"I think we said something like, 'We wanted you to know we're both Dylan's moms, we're a couple, and we wanted you to know that,'" Cate Wirth said. "We didn't use the 'L' word."
.....
.....
Tanney said something like, "Basically we can't have you be in a leadership role, something like that ... because we wouldn't want you to be pushing your lifestyle on the boys," Wirth said. "I was so taken aback. I think we just said 'wow,' we didn't really respond. We were really angry and we just left."
Despite this ridiculous indignity:
Cate Wirth said Tuesday that she expects her son to remain in Scouting, despite this incident. And as of Tuesday afternoon, she had not told the boy about the comments.
"I still think Scouts is a good thing for him because he doesn't have a dad and he's really drawn to a lot of stereotypical male stuff that Scouting does, outdoorsy stuff," Wirth said. "I don't want my personal issues to impact his life in that way. I was concerned if he knew about it he might be uncomfortable going."
She said of her decision to allow him to continue in Scouts, "Politically, if he weren't a 10-year -old boy I'd feel differently about it. I wouldn't support the organization. But his needs come first."
If you read the whole article, you might sense that the spokesperson for the Vermont BSA organization doesn't seem entirely comfortable with the national policy, this being Vermont after all. But hey, that's the way it is...
IMHO the Boy Scouts of America should be smacked upside the head, even though I don't agree with physical punishment for children. And they should be publicly stripped of all their badges & stuff too while we're at it.
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Now then, my own Cub Scout story, circa late 1950s in the Bronx:
I wanted to be a Cub Scout, along with some friends of mine. I though it would be neat to wear a blue uniform with a yellow neckerchief and do scout things like build fires. So I got an application, filled it out and submitted it.
Although the BSA is non-denominational, you do have to believe in God, otherwise.... well I'm not sure what otherwise, but you do have to believe in God. My neighborhood in the Bronx was at that time over 90% Jewish, which was a perfectly acceptable means of fulfilling the requirement. In fact, the Cub Scout pack met at the one synagogue in the neighborhood annually to get blessed by the rabbi. The problem with this neighborhood, the Amalgamated Housing Cooperative and many of the Jews in it though, was that a very significant segment of the Jewish residents were from the labor movement, liberals, socialists of conflicting denominations, organizers, who while thoroughly Jewish and often Yiddish speaking, were neverthless secular as hell all get-out.
So when it came to filling out the the Cub Scout application, in the box where you had to state your religion, this nine year old Jew whose first language spoken at home was Yiddish, quite correctly wrote: "none."
Well, I did not find this out until I was an adult, but apparently that made the local scout leadership sweat and gulp, as this was not an acceptable answer, and as submitted my application would have to be REJECTED for non-compliance. Someone called my folks, my mother confided to me years later, who quietly authorized the term "Jewish" to be entered in the religion box instead. (When she told me this all those years later, my mother was still quite proud that at that early age, I understood the distinctions my parents had carefully explained to me, between being Jewish and being religious.
I quit the Cub Scouts a year or so later for entirely unrelated reasons.
But as this diary attests, I appear to have had it in for them ever since then!