Boy Scouts of America officials are considering ending a ban on gay members and leaders.
According to USA Today, officials will discuss a proposal that would leave the decision up to local units during a three-day meeting which began yesterday. Any decision is expected to be announced tomorrow.
The ban on gays in the organization was upheld by a 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000.
President Barack Obama told CBS that he believes the ban should be lifted.
“My attitude is that gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does, in every institution and walk of life," he said.
This week, the Family Research Council and 41 allied organizations ran an ad calling on the Boys Scouts of America to keep the ban in place.
Every American who believes in freedom of thought and religious liberty should be alarmed by the attacks upon the Boy Scouts, who have had core convictions about morality for 100 years,” the ad says. “Every Scout takes an oath to keep himself “morally straight.” The Boy Scouts have every right to include sexual conduct in how they define that term.
"Many of our organizations stood with the Boy Scouts when the Supreme Court of the United States upheld their right to maintain their membership standards," the ad continues. "To compromise moral principles under political and financial pressure would teach boys cowardice, not courage. Every parent concerned about guiding and protecting their own children should also be alarmed by the proposed change to Boy Scout policy.”
On the first day of the BSA meeting, activists and former Scout leaders delivered 1.4 million signatures calling for the ban to end.
Author Dan Pearce, on his Single Dad Laughing blog, fondly recalled his 7 years as a Boy Scout and the lessons and skills he learned that he still uses today.
“I also learned how to hate myself. You see, I’ve been attracted to my own sex since I was eleven years old, which, coincidentally, was the year I started up in the Boy Scout program,” Pearce wrote.
He recalled attending meetings and summer camp with his fellow Scouts.
“I never wanted to have sex with any of them. I never wanted to experiment sexually with any of them,” he wrote. “I never wanted to do anything sexual at all, ever, with any of them. I just wanted to be accepted and feel like I wasn’t worthless. I was a preteen. Nothing else mattered.”
“Yet so much emphasis was placed on making sure I was never different than the norm that I never had the opportunity to feel accepted and valuable. Ever. And for that reason, I am writing this letter to ask you to reconsider your policy that forbids openly gay men or Scouts into your program.”
What do you think? Should BSA leadership rule to lift the ban or keep it in place? Or should they leave the decision up to local Boy Scout Councils?
Leave a comment and tell us what you think!