I'm a very pro gay rights person.

 Those who know me well have already known this. They also know I'm an Eagle Scout from the Boy Scouts of America.

 This being said it makes me very sad to see them so openly stand against gay rights. It's always been a very controversial subject in the troop I was in for 6 years and helped run for 4 years after.

 Anywho, it's always sad to see such hostility projected by an organization. According to this:
NBC News-Carly Rae Jepsen, Train pull out of Boy Scout event over gay ban
it looks like bands etc are actually making a stand against the public discrimination portrayed by BSA.

 National Jamboree is the largest event held in the US for scouting so it's actually substantial this is happening.

What are your opinions? Do you think the bands are over reacting? Do you think scouting should be allowed to declare whether or not gay people are allowed to partake in such a wonderful program?

I do think gays should have all the rights in the world. Unfortunately for me, my religion doesn't let them into heaven, but i'm a firm believer that they will.

I guess i'm one of the few "good" Christians out there. *sigh*

I am an eagle scout as well. The scouting program doesn't have a lot of money believe it or not and letting gay people into scouts could have negative consequences in that regard. In my area, most troops are funded by our church and are lead by conservative people. So it wouldn't really work. It wouldn't surprise me if parents switched troops or dropped out of scouting depending on being for or against it.

As a former scout,  I feel everyone should be able to do scouting. But a lot of people disagree.

Yeah we were based out of a Methodist church here in our town. But we are a very open minded small town in texas, so it wasnt a surprise when we were accepting of it. By we i mean the parents of our boys in the troop ><

Gays can get married in churches in Denmark.

Homophobia disgusts me. Enough said.

considering scouting and guiding was like originally in england, i like to go with the british style of the baden-powells, all are freaking welcome and if there isnt a spot for someone, make one. hell thats why girl guiding for girls was set up by mrs baden-powell if i remember my guiding history correctly, that people were cheesed off there was nothing for women
make a very nice all are welcome GSA , gay scouts association ?

i think it is disgusting that such an all round supposedly welcoming organisation, in america,  can single out a "type" of kid, even so early on for being gay. thats not going to set a good example to other children etc and will cause issues later in life, if learning to outcast and single out is acceptable...
hell, singling people out for who they are is technically bullying of sorts is it not? to exclude in such a form and cast disgusting messages/ideas is disgusting

i think it is disgusting that such an all round supposedly welcoming organisation, in america,  can single out a "type" of kid, even so early on for being gay. thats not going to set a good example to other children etc and will cause issues later in life, if learning to outcast and single out is acceptable...

I find it weird they would make a big deal of this. I myself don't support gays are gay rights, it just disgusts me. I really don't care what anyone has to say about it either.
Now, I think they might have done it simply because they might feel the same way. Then again, they might not. If they're isn't any way that one could tell if someone was gay or not then I wouldn't understand why they wouldn't allow them in. But if they're just going around flaunting it and such then I understand why.
I always hear jokes about boy scouts and stuff saying it's gay and stuff just because it's full of guys, they may be tired of it, you never know.
Again, I find it weird they'd create such a big deal about it, considering people are thinking being gay is normal now..  :-X

I'm a gay scout (cub) leader in the UK. It has no bearing on the way I conduct myself on an activity evening or at a camp. The other leaders who I work with are all good with it and they know as well as I do that when you are in uniform, you don't really have a sexuality, you're just a scout leader.

The only reason the american boy scouts are so closed doors is because they are funded mainly by some pretty out there churches. It's a real shame that kids are being officially bullied by the organisation that they grew up within. they are being told that it's not okay to be themselves which is a huge part of being a scout! They are also not setting a good example for the other kids who grow up not understanding the diversity of the community! Again, this is a huge part of being a scout! Experiencing and learning about the variety of life around the world.

Astonied, what if I said to you that I don't support EQUAL rights for you on the grounds of your personal tastes which were out of your control? How about if I did it because of your skin colour? I'd also like to ask what constitutes as 'flaunting it'? I see far more flaunted straightness on here and I don't like it all. In fact, Some of the straight talk gives me the proper heeby jeebies. In my head, talk like that is the 'weird' thing because it's not the way I feel. Still, I'd support anyone's equal rights to the end of the earth.

What I'm trying to say is that you might not like it, you might not feel the urge to engage yourself with another man but maybe you could have a think about other peoples' right to do so if they choose to without fear of discrimination? Please bear in mind that this clan is a diverse one.

The BSA can't just be anathematised for this purely, as it cannot be told whether it was a unanimous decision to ban Gays and others, or if it was carried forward by a particularly leader or ringleader. - I'm not sure how to word that bit, I'm sure there's a better word to describe this. But unsure.


Gay rights has always been a contentious topic, that causes much controversial debate with many different arguments and conversations about it worldwide.

Personally I do feel that gay people do deserve all rights that they should be allowed.  (all of them.) so don't get me wrong, but I always enjoy exploring both sides of an argument, so I will - as much as possible before writing something stupid like 1,000 words.



I did a little bit of research on the BSA both prior and whilst writing this as I had no knowledge of this at all, on both the BSA's regulations and the activities that both American and British Scout groups do - as well as similar ones, as of now I only quickly Googled the BSA so I still don't know a 'huge' amount but my knowledge is definitely better than it was.

I noticed that the BSA also disallow Atheists and Agnostics from joining, is no one contesting this rule? Or this just accepted due to Homosexuals being banned too?

---Put to one side because of a "greater" importance issue is what I'm trying to say.---

About the musicians disassociating themselves with the BSA it's understandable, firstly from the side of disagreeing with the BSAs policy, and secondly from not wanting to be associated with the BSA if they are seen with a bad view from the community and fans of the musicians themselves.

As a question, has this recently been brought to light? Because after reading the Wikipedia page it appears this has long been an issue, and if it has only recently been brought to light it inclines me to believe the second possibility rather than the first. (I'd assume the first is in effect too, but less so.)

As if this has recently been brought into the medias line of sight then there will be a huge amount of bad publicity for the musicians and I would not be surprised if they would have gone ahead with these gigs/festivals had this not been 'discovered'.


Again according to the Wikipedia page, the BSA is allowed to do this because it is a private organisation it can pick and choose who can join, and this seems almost fair enough.

---

As for Homo-phobics, not something I  care for, however it's not something that I can completely disagree with, as I can understand why people think the way they do.

Either through the persons religion or personal beliefs, or those they attained whilst growing up through their role-models, which could be almost anything, ranging from friends, parents, relatives, teachers and celebrities.

Also, in my personal opinion disagreeing with people who are gay because they are gay does not automatically make you a homophobe. As when if you disagree with a foreign person does not make you a racist.

As such purely disagreeing with gays for whatever reason unless it's a truly legitimate reason does not make you a bigot or a homophobe, hence you should not be anathematised for any views if they are not major.

And I feel that anyone who attacks someone else for simply stating their views on a topic, no matter if it's worded badly, or well is just as bad as the 'bigot' they're attacking.
Please not that last paragraph is intended for both sides, in this case both Pro-Gay rights and Anti-gay rights, and when speaking to either sides of the debate, this also includes my opinion on any posts on this thread, the point is to debate and discuss the particular topic and hear everyones opinions on it.

Whether you agree with someone else's opinion or not shouldn't matter, you can discuss but don't insult it.

---

Was not totally sure whether I should even post on this thread as it is not something I am particularly opinionated about. But oh well.

---

SEMI-EDIT::

If you call a Bigot a Bigot does that make you a Bigot?

P.S  unsure why I caps'd Bigot. Lol.

Gays and troops have always been in the major heat sensors of scouting here. Its always been veryyyyy touchy and therefore not frontly addressed until recently. There are many tiers of scouting, going from the national level all the way down to local scout troops. Well start from troop level first.

Scoutmaster, head of a localized group of scouts who works with them to accomplish their goals whether it be eagle or not.

then you have something called districts, which is a group of troops within a particular area that is sanctioned off by a higher grouping called councils.

Councils, a much larger area usually containing 20-30 districts.

Then state level, then national level. Not sure if this helps with what im about to explain.


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Someone on the National level made it a bylaw that gays were not allowed. As for Atheism and Agnostics ive not heard of this being on a national level regulation moreso, just the seperate troops discretion within a church. Does this 'bylaw' really prevent gays from being in troops? Not in the least bit. I called the scout master of my troop last night and he said that "I will not make the decision that a boy cannot partake just because of his sexual preferences. Someone can come down to our small town troop from a national level and i will personally lie to their face if i must to allow these boys to stay with what they love doing."  Agreeing with this statement i decided to delve further. Due to my activity within my troop and district, i happen to know the head of Sam Houston Area Council. Now this council happens to sit atop of about 30k-45k scouts depending on if you include the outlying districts like mine, Raven. I asked him the same question and he said this. "Ive been doing this for many years Nate, bout 40 to be more precise. Now as you know i might joke around alot and i might not have a serious attitude 100% of the time but im always thinking, always judging, and always remembering what i hear. Ive seen many scout generations come and go even some sons make eagle scout when i watched their fathers do so too. Ive seen many gays in scouting. I dont care, theyre happy and that means were doing something right. Our job isnt to make things politically correct nor is it to appeal to the nature of those who think their opinion should change the world view. I will continue to do my job to help every scout who wishes to make eagle get there by helping each scoutmaster in the ways theyre needed. If a scoutmaster feels uncomfortable with allowing a particular scout in their troop then they are allowed to kindly ask the boys parents to choose a different troop."   We talked about an hour more after that just catching up on how he had been doing with his college courses he was taking and how mine were going.

Long story short, This statement has only put a precursor on what people of future scouting generations will think. My troop has asked scouts to choose other troops before but not because of these reasons, but mainly because the parent had issues dealing with power control and we were unable to move the troop forward in a positive manner while he refused anyone else to have input on decision making.

I hope this helps on how the BSA is viewed by you all.

Personally i loved scouting i miss it all the time but i just cant do it right now while taking care of chris every weekend. Would i do it all over again now knowing this is how BSA as a national stance feels on this subject? Id have to say yes, it was a game changer for me, really helped set those beginner morals in stone on me.


As for the bands pulling out? Go train and carly rae for standing for what you believe in.  If ever a venue to try to make a stand like this, its National Jamboree.