I was in the scouts...well, sort of. I was actually in the cub scouts, but couldn't be bothered joining the Boy Scouts, since it required me to do stuff. But, I did like going on all the cool camping and fishing trips and getting taught in survival by ex Army Rangers and stuff. As it so happened, my brother was a Boy Scout and my dad was a troop leader, so I got to tag along with them and do all the cool stuff, just without the commitment. I got to have my cake and eat it too, so to speak. The reason the BSA hasn't let in homosexuals is because 1) they are a religious organization and 2) because they are heavily funded by religious organizations who fervently oppose homosexuality, particularly the Southern Baptist Church. I think that's the one anyway, you know, the one with all the nutjob bible thumpers? If they were truly worried about teaching the kids good life lessons, they wouldn't be teaching them that bigotry and segregation is ok. Which is prolly why they are considering letting homosexuals in now, somebody somewhere prolly thought that teaching kids equal rights would be a good idea.
The stupid thing about this whole discussion is the same problem with "letting" gays into anything. I am gay, and I WAS in the boy scouts... just because an organization says that you're not allowed to be gay doesn't change the fact that 1 out of 10 random kids are gay, at the very least. And has others have pointed out most children aren't engaged in sexual acts yet - I sure wasn't - so why is this even an issue? Shouldn't the rule just be no sex in boy scouts at all? I don't remember discussing heterosexual acts in boy scouts so I feel like making an across the board rule that sex is not a good topic for discussion among children would resolve any issue anyone had with gay-specific "adult themes" people are worried about.
Not in the US... that I know of? ... I think the intention is that if you like boy scouts so much as a kid, you should join the military as an adult. You could also become a troop leader, or get involed with the BSA management, and actually run the boy scouts. That's sort of like being in it xD.
I don't mind. they might make some new friends, and maybe even more. I don't know what the rules of the BSA are ('cause I obviously don't live in America), but I think that as long as they don't show too much intimacy during the sessions, it should be alright. And at home they just do whatever they want.
I've heard the BSA is considering allowing in gay members but compromising by keeping out gay adults and leaders. I still think that's wrong. I just want to clear this up: you can be eighteen and still be in the Boy Scouts. And considering eighteen is the legal age for consensual sex in the United States... well, it seems normal for kids of that age or who will soon be that age to be considering their sexuality. And many boys tend to start exploring their own sexuality at around age eleven. "Figuring yourself out" and "gaining all the experiences you can" could in some cases mean exploring one's sexuality. There's nothing wrong with that. It's perfectly natural. Kids worry and think about a lot of deep things at young ages, and to oversimplify their thought processes in your own mind for the purpose of reasoning what is or isn't right for them is immoral in my eyes.
a 18 years old isn`t a kid. it`s a teenager who`s just one or two years to be a young adult. so, don`t confusse a kid with a teenager steping to be a young adult.
As someone who's just about to leave the eighteen-years-old demographic, I can say that while yes, you do become a legal adult in many ways at eighteen, there is no magical transformation that happens on your birthday that makes you more adult-like other than legally. An eighteen-year-old is a kid who is legally an adult. You're arguing semantics. "Young adult" is just a polite euphemism for teenager, which in turn refers to a kid in his/her teen years. The difference is negligible as well as irrelevant.
I really couldn't care less; my homophobic dad on the other hand is throwing a fit over it, probably because my younger brother is in boy scouts.
Gay ppl should be allowed to be scouts or whatever they wanna be. Rights should be equal and not only for the heterosexual. We are all the same.
