It’s been a while, and I apologize, although I hope you’ve been enjoying the other posts I’ve put up, there’s some fun stuff there.

If you read nothing else, and watch nothing else, read this amazing article from Rob.  Here’s the crux:

You’re safer leaving your son in the care of  a man who says that he’s gay than with a man who says that he’s not.

Next up, Literally Unbelievable, one of my favorite blogs hits it out of the park (and so of course, so does The Onion):

And here’s the deal, some kids know they’re LGBT when they’re in kindergarden.  Some people don’t figure it out until they’re in high school or college.  Some anti-gay, Republican lawmakers still haven’t figured it out (Larry Craig), the point is we’re each on our own journey.  What we should be worried about is supporting all kids, giving them a place they feel safe and helping them become better community leaders.

Lawmakers in California are mulling stripping the BSA of their tax exempt status.  Now to be fair, that policy should be extended to all groups that discriminate, not just the BSA, nor do I think it will pass, but it’s interesting to see.  Non-profits work on a shoe string budget, and this would certainly cause some cuts to be made.

You may have heard that the BSA will hire convicted criminals, but not anyone who is LGBT.  This looks like it’s just a local council application, but, it is actually illegal to deny employment (at least I think it is) based on criminal background.  You can certainly find something else, but that can’t be the official reason.  The reason the BSA can discriminate against the LGBT community is because they are a 501(c)3, which are normally exempt from non-discrimination laws, such as what we have in Allegheny County.

There was a rally in Texas where Scouts (in uniform) were used as a backdrop to support the ban, Gov. Perry let us know he supports the ban, and Ameriblog looks at the connection between DADT, the BSA, the Mormons and pro football:

“Now that the armed forces ban on openly gay service members has been lifted, and polls show increasing acceptance of same-sex marriage, most American voters think it’s time to open up the Boy Scouts, too,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac’s Polling Institute.

James Dale, from the original lawsuit, has spoken out again in support of lifting the ban:

With this one letter, the work to which I had dedicated more than half of my young life came completely undone. I was devastated. Yet, it was precisely the sense of leadership, respect, equality and community that the Scouts had instilled in me that would not allow me to accept this injustice, done not just to me but to countless other young gay people who had found a home in the Boy Scouts of America. Not fighting my expulsion from the Scouts would have been a betrayal of all I’d learned in the Scouts….

…If sexual issues are not brought up in the Scouting environment — and in my experience, they never were, until an outside party publicized my homosexuality — that’s all the more reason that it should not matter if some members happen to be gay. It has no impact on their ability to earn an American heritage merit badge, join the Order of the Arrow or achieve lifelong Eagle Scout status.

And just remember, the hateful policy affects people, but we carry on.  An Eagle Scout and EMT was killed by a drunk driver. Flags were at half mast and the community has been rocked.  And he made a moving It Gets Better video:

As the vote that didn’t happen approached, 1.4 million signatures were delivered, President Obama reaffirmed his stance that the program should embrace equality (so did Romney by the way) and the Human Rights Campaign has said what we’re all thinking though, that the end of the ban as proposed, still would leave rampant discrimination.  I don’t think it will happen, and I think their proposal is a small first step, but a step in the right direction.  I guess I’m torn, but I’ll take any progress.

Two gay brothers share their Scouting story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFdmNx9drzE

Ameriblog also covers the Mormon Church.  They have a chance to make a difference, to embrace their own dogmatic change they made last year (proclaiming that LGBT persons can be members of their church), but time will tell.  I’m not holding my breath.

Zach Wahls, from Scouts for Equality eviscerates a homophobic parent on CNN and Carol Costello does the same to the head of the FRC.

Zach also spoke to Democracy, Now:

And this is just a reminder, there always have been LGBT members of the BSA and there always will be.  We’re just pushing for equality, trustworthiness and an organization that tells an entire swath of the population that they are broken.

And that’s what we have to change.  I fight for this change, not for me (although I would like to go back to volunteer at camp), but for the kids coming after us.  They all need our support, straight and gay, and the BSA needs to be a program that is inclusive and affirms that all youth, no matter their sexuality, have worth.

All my best,

Mike

The Atlantic has a beautiful piece about two men who used the Scout Law as part of the wedding vows:

For us, earning our Eagle was about much more than learning to tie knots or build a fire in the rain. Although those are important skills scouts learn along the way, at its core, the Boy Scouts is about imparting the amorphous but critical skill of leadership. The basic premise of scouting is to build a future generation of leaders, to grow a cadre of young men who embody the moral and ethical virtues of a society and have the capacity to mobilize those values for good.

That’s why there is such a push to make the movement embrace equality.  It’s a great program and offers so much to its members.  It’s also so prevalent, that we need to fight against such a large organization telling children they are somehow broken.

The piece continues:

As potential parents, we, too, doubt that the institution’s moral edifice can persist under a continued posture of discrimination. The chilly November weekend that we proposed to each other, we were backpacking along a lone ridge in the Massanutten mountain range when we came across the only other group of people braving the cold that weekend—a scout troop from Virginia. After they passed, we pondered what role, if any, the Boy Scouts would play in our lives if we ended up adopting a son. We resented the idea that a child of ours would be told, from day one, that his parents were morally deficient — so much so that they could not be trusted to participate in the day-to-day activities of scouts.

It’s a great article, please have a read if you have a few minutes.

All my best,

Mike

I honestly didn’t expect to be doing so much writing so quickly, I didn’t expect the BSA to move as fast as it has.  But I’m more than happy to have come out, guns blazing, if it means making the world a better place for those coming after me.

The first post of the week (The case against discrimination), was something I had worked on in the past, and of course, wish I had more time with.  I still obsess over word choice and phrasing and presenting the best case I possibly can.  But, I didn’t have any more time to wait.  I’m not sure if it changed anyone’s mind, but I certainly hope it helped or at least showed the science and logical proof to ending this ban.

I’ll be getting back to working on the feature “The secrets of the slideshows” and more regular blogging as well, I’m sure you’ve all missed that (again, let me have my fantasies that I have a massive, world-wide audience).  The slideshows themselves were very cathartic, actually.

They were the one gift that I could give the entire staff.  I worked with so many staff members, that honestly, unless you were around for three or more years, were a key staff member I worked with on a daily basis, or really screwed up your paperwork, I wasn’t going to remember you.  It was just the nature of the beast, sadly when you have about 250 staff members and C.I.T.s at Heritage and CSM, not to mention the staff I worked with at Guyasuta (I didn’t do Twin Echo staff, but I think that was going to change).

But the slideshow let me give everyone a gift.  Yes, the pictures were fun, and sometimes there were themes that emerged, but it was the music that I loved the most.  And if you listen to the music, you can probably hear hints of me in the selections I made.  I hope you’ll go back and watch the slideshows if you were on staff those years, I’ll be working on that series over the next few weeks.

But for the last post in this special series, I wanted to reproduce a Scoutmaster’s Minute:

Whose camp is it?

Scouts who come to Heritage Reservation for the first time ask “Who owns Heritage?” Well,
the answer to that is pretty simple. The Laurel Highlands Council, and because your unit is
from this area, that makes you a part of the Council. So in a way, you are a part owner of this
wonderful place.

But you are an owner of Heritage Reservation in a more important way. Every youth who
camps here leaves a little bit of themselves with this camp. The improvement project you
participate in, your care of the land and the water, your responsibility in not littering or
destroying any living thing or damaging any property stays here as part of you. That not only
makes you an owner of Heritage, it makes you a permanent part of it.

Pittsburgh (Plum, specifically) is the home of W. D. Boyce, the founder of the BSA.  He was a newspaper titan, and on a trip to London, got lost in the fog and was helped by a Scout, who refused to accept a tip from him.  He was so impressed by the program that he brought the program back to the United States.

And as it turns out, Boyce’s grandson, William Boyce Mueller, was gay.  Boyce never lived to meet his grandson, but do you really think he would have wanted the organization he founded to exclude his own relative?  Only a monster would expect that.

It’s an easy point to make, but maybe that just means it’s too easily overlooked: the Scout Law calls us to be trustworthy, friendly and kind.  The admonition of the Order of the Arrow calls us to love one another.  It’s not hard to treat one another with dignity and respect, and in doing so, supporting the children who may need the organization the most.  I’m not asking for much, just for a common recognition of our humanity.  We’re all in this together, after all.

I’ve neglected it, but I have to give a special shout out to Alpha Phi Omega.  The brothers I worked with in the past (I was the advisor for a section conference as well as started Scouting University at SVC), have been very supportive.  APO has always had a close relationship with Scouting, and they’ve had their own issues to work through, mainly the integration of women, but they tend to move forward much faster and with much less drama.

And a special thank you to everyone who has read along, commented and sent me messages.  I never expected to get anywhere near the reaction that I have.  It’s been wonderful to talk with you all, reminisce about some fond memories, and also realize that I have much more support than I thought I did.  So thank you.

I hope that you can see why I think people should be judged on their actions, and their works, not on how they were created.  Why should a simple difference in hormones (in utero no less) be more important that the work I did over 11 summers (and five full-time years).  I think that if you worked with me, you can understand the sentiment.

A very good friend likes to call me “the glue” (and a couple others have picked up the phrase as well).  I still argue that I wasn’t that important, that I was easily replaceable.   But I look back and see the 10,000 people I got registered for camp each year, the 100+ hour week I put in for MountainFest (including the marathon 20 hour day of registration), the program we put together for 10,000 campers at Campaganza, the 700 people at Volunteer Celebration and the untold sold-out Winter Weekends, and the myriad of other weekend events, website launches, graphic design projects and insurance thrown at me, and the fact that it took two people to “replace” me, maybe I was a little important.

I mentioned it before, but I think it bears repeating, especially after this week of posts.  Oftentimes, I forget that I’m out.  There are much more interesting things about me, and quite frankly, unless we’re dating, my sexuality isn’t going to affect you.

So it is my wish that people can look past who I love (but I’d rather welcome you to that celebration, anyway), and remember the work ethic, and the smile.  And realize, we’re not so different.

I hope you enjoyed this week of posts and I hope you learned something along the way.  I’ll be back, we still have a host of other rights to fight for, but for now, I just hope I made a positive impact.  Thanks for reading.

All my best,

Mike