The Boy Scouts : Possibly a Return to Relevance?

Until just a few hours ago, I was pessimistic about the future of the Boy Scouts of America. Now it seems that they may manage to have a future. The news has just come in that a vote at the organization's annual meeting has approved a policy to allow gay scouts to remain scouts even as openly gay scouts; gay scout leaders continue to be prohibited. [see, e.g., this summary]

Years ago I was, for a few years, a Boy Scout, but it didn't really agree with me. I really wasn't the camping-and-roughing-it type of kid. Later on I could figure out that, by the time I'd graduated from the very enjoyable Cub Scouts, I was starting to feel uncomfortably different from what seemed to be the typical Scout.

In 2000 the Supreme Court told the BSA that they could go on discriminating against gay men and boys, but it was, and still is, one of the best modern examples of a Pyrrhic victory, and the BSA seemed to be beginning it's long, slow slide into irrelevance.

While it still has a ways to go for inclusiveness that would at all approach that of the Girl Scouts, it is a big step for them, a step in the right direction, certainly, and just possibly the first step on the path to recovering some twenty-first century relevance.

Posted on May 23, 2013 at 19.31 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Current Events

One Response

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  1. Written by rightsaidfred
    on Sunday, 26 May 2013 at 15.57
    Permalink

    … the BSA seemed to be beginning it's long, slow slide into irrelevance.

    Isn't our whole society on that slide?

    I don't see where preaching inclusiveness is all that successful a strategy. It mostly becomes a chance for others to take advantage of you.

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