The BSA national board meets in fourteen days and on the agenda is the change to membership standards, which would allow openly gay youth, but not adults. The staggering amount of information from their various surveys has been released, and I think it’s presented in a bit biased way, seeing as all the pro-equality comments are skimmed over at the very end of the information packet, but that may be me nit-picking.
The voting process itself is amazingly intricate (although from what I gather, no more intricate that votes of other large corporations or governing bodies). The big news of course, is that the largest backer (in terms of sponsoring units), the Mormon Church, is supporting the proposed membership standards. In fact, only one of the major sponsoring partners is against the change.
And no, the proposed change is not perfect. But it’s a step towards full equality, and a step in the right direction. We have to remember that. Right now, kids are being discriminated against, and that kind of institutionalized discrimination drives young people to suicide. So even though there are plenty of adults, like me, who would love to go back and volunteer, we have to check our egos at the door and remember that this is a youth organization and we have to support the youth first and foremost. This isn’t about us. We have to abide by the campsite rule and make it better for those coming after us.
And yes, the policy basically comes down to this:
But youth are smarter than we give them credit for, that I promise you. They see the hypocrisy, and understand that it’s a step in the right direction (not to mention that it’s not a viable solution long-term, just in terms of the gray definition of youth when you pull in OA and Venturing). But this gives them a place to be safe, a place to belong and a place where they can finally be themselves, become better citizens, be exposed to hobbies and vocations and develop skills they’ll carry their whole lives.
And besides, LGBT members have always, always been members of the BSA. We just lean on those around us, and recognize that there are many fighting for us inside the organization as well.
In the meantime, an equality minded similar organization is showing growth, the UK Scouts (where it all started) is inviting everyone to join them at Pride celebrations this summer and a gay former Scout spends a day with a local troop, giving them the best cinematography merit badge classes ever:
Zach Wahls, founder of Scouts for Equality, mops the floor with an anti-equality activist, and the Good Men Project hits is perfectly with this essay. A father and son team are cycling across the country to raise awareness for the membership change, while at the same time, conservatives aregoingcrazy making shit up (three separate links there), and the epicenter of all this, the Cradle of Liberty Council in Philadelphia, will be vacating their long-time headquarters because of the national stance (that they tried to work-around).
Also, in the weird side of things, the Family Research Council has nothing else to do besides steal photos, badly doctor them and try to pass them off as from Irving. I don’t have anything to add to that, but sometimes, you just have to acknowledge the bizarre and keep on moving.
We’ve come a long way since BSA v Dale. We have further to go, but this is a step towards full equality. If you haven’t already, contact your local council, or donate to Scouts for Equality.
