I was an avid Boy Scout many decades ago. Louie, an attorney, was my Scout Master; his son Larry was one of my fellow Scouts. Great guys. I could probably have made more of my years in scouting if I hadn’t spent most of my time weeding out the gays.
I’d flash a picture of a bodybuilder in front of another scout and if the kid’s eyes widened, I immediately grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and escorted him out of the meeting room or campsite. But before I expelled this young heathen, whose very presence would have kept fellow straight scouts from being Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and especially Reverent, I’d take out my tattoo kit I had earned with my “Art of Tattooing” Arts merit badge and ink up “GAY, NEFS (not eligible for Scouts) across the lad’s forehead.
When word got out that I was preserving Scouting for decent and holy (read straight) young men, I became somewhat of a local hero. I’d been credited with preventing those treacherous 11-17 year-old budding homosexuals from destroying the moral and social fabric of my God-fearing hometown in Nebraska. I received the distinguished “Crush the Gays” Tea Party award for meritorious service to my fellow heterosexuals.
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I did none of these things of course expect belong to the troop sponsored by the Methodist church (70% of all sponsors are churches). As a young man I was pretty much unaware of whether some young guy was gay or not. And if I was aware, it didn’t seem to register that I should hate that person. Now, if there were an attempt to molest, that would have made a difference. But that all seemed to be limited to boys forcing themselves on girls. If somebody tried to steal my stuff or bully people, that would have made a difference. But participating in scouting, sports, theater, the school paper, debate, the math club or any other activity should be open to anybody. Why in the hell would the sexual orientation of a 15-year-old make any difference? Or some 50-year-old, if the restraints I mentioned were honored.
So, clueless clusters of the right, if somebody is gay and not bothering you, their membership in the scouts or anything else is none of your business. You have zero right to deprive this individual from any activity you’re free to pursue. If you’re uncomfortable that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has regained it’s civility and will now admit young gay men into Boy Scout troops, YOU stay home. Surely there’s an organization that son’s of homophobes can join? Oh yeah, the Republican Party. The Scouts are still keeping adult males away from leadership positions, so it’s not a total loss for right-wing extremists.
Today, a picture appeared in my local newspaper that’s making the rounds of the Internet. It’s a Texas mother and her 8-year-old son. The woman carries a crude, hand-painted sign, “Save our Scouts.” The lettering on the youngster’s sign; “Keep Scouts Morally Straight.” Here’s one of the sites featuring the parenting triumph of hate.
The Southern Baptist Convention is meeting in Houston pretty soon. The delegates are going to vote on severing ties with the Boy Scouts of America. Numerous other right-wing, red state church defections, as seen on my referenced link, are already putting the split in motion prior to what is undoubtedly going to be an anti-Scout (and anti-gay) vote by the Convention. These churches are saying gays shouldn’t be allowed within a million miles of the Boy Scouts. I mean after all, it’s in Leviticus 18:22: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination.”
As various biblical wags have pointed out, other “abominations” include: Eagles! Ironic that becoming an “Eagle” Scout is one of the highest callings in scouting. Then there are such abominations as gents trimming their beards, wearing mixed fabrics (actually saw that on Project Runway). Pigs are an abomination as are shellfish. Oh, and those abominable gay Boy Scouts.
Personally, I think haters are an abomination.
Of course for those NT’ers out there, 1 Corinthians 6:9 spells it out. Homosexuals and Sodomites will NOT inherit the Kingdom of God. NOR WILL Fornicators (unmarried intercourse, silly) and Adulterers (married intercourse, but not with the one you’re married to, wink, wink, nudge, nudge). That pretty much covers the vast majority of you church-going hets. So, be prepared to rearrange the furniture in Hades with your new gay BFF’s and I do mean forever!
Let’s try a little logic here. The apparent right-wing problem with gays is that homosexuals are sexually attracted to persons of their same sex. Boys are attracted to boys; lesbian girls to other girls. Let’s skip down that road here. If it’s a matter of sexual attraction and don’t you know right-wingers are obsessed with sex, then by that sexual attraction reasoning, heterosexual male coaches (SEXUALLY attracted to the OPPOSITE sex) should be forbidden to coach young girls in softball, tennis, basketball, swimming, volleyball, lacrosse or any other sport with female participants. Yet there is a very high percentage of male coaches in all of these athletic undertakings. Sure, there are a few horny male pervs out there who abuse the understood sexual divide and find themselves behind bars, but is there a huge right-wing outcry to prevent males from coaching females, no matter how heinous the sexual crime might be? Hardly!
And I’ll guarantee you there’s a stadium full of straight male college profs banging naïve young coeds in every ivy-covered corner of academia. Scandal? (To coin a popularly overused and misapplied word.) Hardly!
To give discredit where discredit is due, some guy named Ron Green, who is the head of the Palmetto Council that supports Scouting programs in a half-dozen Upstate South Carolina counties will resign as of June 30th because the BSA dares allow gay young people to participate in Scouting. The very idea!!! Green, however, says he’s never kicked a gay scout out of any troop and that the BSA ban only applied to “open and avowed” homosexuals.
Green knocked off a five-page letter to pals that an enlightened citizen furtively forwarded to area media outlets. In the letter, Green groused that the national organization’s “progressive values” and his “biblical values were diverging,” and that he had decided to resign because of “lost trust and confidence in this movement’s top national leadership.” He alleged that surveyed local constituents overwhelmingly favored the “traditional” stance, supposedly by a 97% vote. I live among those respondents. I’m sure that number is accurate.
Let’s see, what did I used to promise as a scout? “To help other people at all times?” I had no idea that for right-wingers “other people” didn’t include “other people.”
Raised rural & small town, then lived in N.Y., Chicago & LA. Widely traveled. Returned from world wandering to pursue media life of anchorman/reporter and major, medium and small market talk radio. Highly active in politics. Once worked as orderly & security in Mens Lock Ward for the Criminally Insane at a state institution. Much more rational population than current Teapublicans. Great concern for country run by and for the extreme wealthy. The inhumane current running through this country has no precedent in modern history.
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