Lesbian mom Jennifer Tyrrell delivered a petition to Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Wednesday, containing 300,000 electronic signatures in support of the group changing its approach toward the gay community. On Tuesday, BSA reaffirmed its policy of disallowing membership to “open or avowed homosexuals.”
Ms. Tyrrell had been the den leader of the Tiger Cub Den, the Bridgeport, Ohio Cub Scout den that her 7-year-old son Cruz had been a part of, before she was asked to step down due to her sexual orientation. She then organized an electronic petition through Change.org to protest BSA’s decision to not allow gay members or den leaders.
Despite the “tens of thousands of comments” from scouts and former scouts, BSA stuck to its “no gay members allowed” policy. A statement released to the public on the decision states:
The committee's work and conclusion is that this policy reflects the beliefs and perspectives of the BSA's members, thereby allowing Scouting to remain focused on its mission and the work it is doing to serve more youth.
Good for the BSA for standing up for the majority of its members and not kowtowing to social pressure. The Boy Scouts are a private group, and they don't have to allow homosexuals. They don't allow women either (except as cub scout den leaders for the under 12 set), but no one is complaining about that.
I'm sorry that Ms. Tyrrell didn't get to fulfill her dream of becoming a den mother, but no one gets everything they want. She decided to have a child as a lesbian, which has its pros and cons. On the one hand, she's not allowed to lead her son's den (by the way, I didn't see anything about excluding the children of gay couples), but on the other hand mommies are awesome and Cruz has two!
The majority of Boy Scouts have said that they are not comfortable allowing homosexuals into their ranks. Here's the beauty of the free market -- if this is really something that so many scouts feel strongly about, they'll leave and find other places to do good deeds. Enough people leave, BSA may have to reexamine its policy. Until then, leave them in peace.
What do you think? Should the Boy Scouts of America be forced to accept homosexuals as members?
Image via stevendepolo/Flickr
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
KStew Refuses to Shower
This Hot Dad Wants to Cook You Dinner
This Hot Dad Cooks AND Does the Dishes
Comments 74
Bette you just need to double check the stats on sex offenders and pedophiles. Male HETEROsexuals usually abuse little boys.
Bette, are you implying that all men are child molesters just waiting for a chance to strike?? Remind me to never let your husband alone with my daughter, just in case he can't help himself.
People are so strange that they think that not being allowed to discriminate means that they are being discriminated against.
I agree that women are sometimes to predominant in some troops. I originally had my sons join because I was a single mom and wanted my sons to have some male role models only to discover the troops in my area were mostly ran by women on all levels. It was surprising and disheartening. I have now remarried and my husband is very involved in the scouts with them. My oldest is now going from cub to boyscout. I was surprised at his boyscout camp how many females were working there. From life guards to activity leaders to the mess hall. I was especially put off my the beautiful blonde large busted female life guard. But i do understand that they have to work with people who want to be there, most are volunteers. I will say though that I don't personally have a problem with gays being in the organization, it's not a concern for me.
I agree with whoever said that if you replaced homosexual with negro you would see this for what it really is. I doubt anyone would be defending them if this article was about black boys being excluded.
"OMG, I'm tired of hearing about homosexuality. Honestly I just go with simple science on this. No men............no babies. No women no babies. The world as we know it would abruptly end. If whoever created us (whether you believe in god or not) designed us to be gay or lesbian, then gay and lesbians as couples could create life without the help of the opposite sex. Its NOT possible! ?"
Uh..not everyone is gay or lesbian. So here's my 'simple' stance. Maybe gay people help our population issues because they're more likely to adopt children and cannot have any without spending a lot of time deciding they truly want to, unlike heterosexuals who can get knocked up on accident at any time.
Hell, maybe they're even better parents than heterosexuals by your logic because they CHOOSE to be parents..they have no accidents.
Lastly I'd just like to know when any of you chose to be straight? If you have to 'control your desires' to keep from having sexual relations with the same sex you should probably consider the likely possibility that you are not heterosexual.
Sure they can adopt.........................from two people who created the child, one male, one female (I guess fortunately for the gay or infertile couple thankfully someone got knocked up) I'm not saying that gay or lesbian couples can't be good parents or shouldn't be parents. I'm just saying they can't be parents without involving the opposite sex period. Which is why I believe we weren't built to be partnered with the same sex. If that were true there would be no babies to adopted.
The BSA is not standing by their convictions IMHO, they are cowards violating their mission statement.
If they BSA leadership said homosexuality was immoral, than they wouldn't be violating it, since the mission statement involves teaching boys to leading a moral life: "The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law."
However they didn't say that. Either they didn't have the balls, or they realize they don't have leg to stand on, scientifically or culturally for such a statement.
So instead what they are saying to their membership is it is ethical to discriminate towards people when their presence makes you uncomfortable or brings up issues you just don't want to deal with.
Not the ethics I want my boys exposed to. Which is a pity. My brother and husband are both Eagle Scouts.
you are wrong about women/girls in the boyscouts. They also have Venture Scouts and girls can do that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venturing_(Boy_Scouts_of_America)