[Note: if you have heard my rants about my Internet connection, you will understand how I am feeling right now having to recompose this whole post because my Internet connection died as I was saving the last attempt!*]
A United Way agency in Florida discontinued its funding for Boy Scouting programs, Tuesday. Why? The BSA reneged on a deal to assist young gal males to cope with their sexuality. The United Way used the US Government's tactic, so that the BSA succumbed to the pressure of withheld financial assistance, just as the states succumbed to the Federal pressure to lower their speed limits and make seat belts mandatory.
Now I am not a gay basher. I try not to concern myself with what people do on their own time. I have always thought that sexual activity between two consenting persons of the same gender provided the absolute best means of birth control. I am admittedly of the opinion that there are too many people on this planet, so any method of eliminating future growth trends is beneficial in the grand design. Although my only data for the following is what I have overheard in conversations between teenagers and from my day-to-day observations of their activities, such should be considered as reliable as any social study, survey or poll. I am of the opinion that this generation of teenagers has no shame in their sexuality, are totally unconcerned about who slept with what person or persons, and are, for the most part, bisexuals. They are in the midst of a mega-revival of the "free sex" revolution in the 1960's, only this time with AIDS and Herpes and many other sexually transmitted diseases. This generation shows very little real concern over the risks of spreading STDs.
Tony, at I Am Always Right had this to say:
I was in the Boy Scouts and I just don't remember "helping gays cope with being deviant" among the literature they use to promote themselves.
I, too, was in Scouting, and have always thought it provided a great foundation upon which to build my life. Scouting taught us to rely upon ourselves and to assist others. There were no lessons on chasing girls or chasing boys. Sexual discussion was implicitly understood to be taboo by everyone involved.
Was there any sexual discussion or activity in Scouting? Sure, but no one admitted it. All I saw was confined to boys in tents, several curious boys sleeping in close quarters. There might be episodes of penis comparison from time to time, or even public masturbation, by more than one actor. I suppose a couple of the boys might have taken a mutual stroll in the moonlight, but no one thought twice about it. No one understood their sexuality during those years, and Scouting did not include such in the agenda they offered to adolescent males. They did not teach or promote sexuality of any sort: hetero-, homo-, bi- or a-. Why should they do so now? If they are looking for an organization that works diligently in assisting young men to discover their sexuality, send them to the Catholic Church.
*I got smarter the second time I had pasted my story in my word processor and saved it before attempting to save it. Good thing, too, because the second attempt crashed.
Is this punishment for successfully fighting to keep gays from being Scout Leaders? The Supreme Court said they have an absolute right to do so, but do they not also have a moral obligation to do so? Do we not expect an organization in which we trust the care of our boys to use "reasonable caution" in selecting the men into whose care these boys are entrusted? When it comes to deciding whether to allow a person who by their own sexual choice finds the body of males to be sexually exciting or one who does not, I believe it is reasonable caution to restrict the selection those who do not. There are likely plenty of gay males who would make good Scout Leaders, but there are some who we, including gays, all know, would be predatory in such a setting. There is almost no chance of a heterosexual male being sexually predatory against another male of any age.
Posted by Tiger at May 14, 2003 10:07 PM