Boy Scouts of America Vs. LGBTTTIQ Community-revised

The LGBTTTIQ community has gone through some many struggles and has come a long way but, still have much farther to go.  They have had to deal with discrimination in almost every aspect of their lives from marriages to now boy scouts.  That’s right, boy scouts have a policy of “not granting membership to open or avowed homosexuals.” (CNN Wire Staff, 2012, p.1).  This ideology seeds from the boy scout promise “to do his duty to god and to be morally straight as well as to be clean in his thoughts, words and deeds” (Griffin, 2006, p. 6).   Does this mean the Boy Scouts of America think that people who identify as gay are not “morally straight” or unclean? The case of James Dale tells a story of the discrimination's an adult has to go through attempting to help others and stand up for what he believes in.  This is difficult for an adult to go through can you imagine how difficult it would be for a youth struggling within himself as well.  Ryan Andresen is one of the stronger youth who was also discriminated against for being himself (CNN Wire Staff, 2012, p.1).  The long fight for nondiscriminatory practices is, unfortunately, an ongoing battle for the LGBTTTIQ community.

James Dale went through scouts beginning when he was eight years old (Griffin, 2006).  He attained the rank of an eagle scout and later applied for an adult membership to become a leader (Griffin, 2006).  He seemed to be a promising member and a role model for other children and youth.  Shortly after he became an assistant scout master he was sent a letter asking him to revoke his membership all because he was openly supporting the needs of gay/lesbian youth( Griffin, 2006).   He was not granted the right to defend himself at the hearing because the Boys Scouts of America (BSA) “does not admit avowed homosexuals to membership in the organization” (CNN, 2012, p. 1).  James was granted all of these badges and memberships as the person he was until, the BSA found out that he identified as gay. How can you someone change their mind because of a sexual preference?   This seems severely discouraging for not only people who want to help and volunteer for scouts but also to the children and youth who may identify as gay.

  

Ryan Andresen is a prime example of how this is effecting youth from doing something that they love.  Ryan was weeks away from becoming an eagle scout, when his scout master sat down with his father and told him he would not be able to (CNN, 2012).  He is not able to because of the policy, a policy that forces children and youth to go without a great experience all because of their sexual orientation.  When I write that down it doesn’t even make sense, how can someone discriminate because of who you are.  Ryan did an incredible project to stop bullying; he went back to his middle school and had the school draw something nice and anti-bullying (CNN, 2012). This seems very symbolic for me because he goes out to create this wonderful inspirational wall to prevent bullying and yet he is being bullied by BSA, the people that he is doing the project for (CNN, 2012).

This policy was re-affirmed in July of 2012.  The message that this seems to be passing to some youth struggling with their sexual identity is that it is not okay that you identify as gay. According to Griffin “Each year, the boy scouts provide stability, discipline, and community to hundreds of thousands of youth, helping them become successful adults” (2006, p. 11).  How can they hold up to this if they do not show that everyone is equal and everyone should be included? 

 The views of this policy stem from the neo-conservative ideologies.  The neo-conservative beliefs are in favour of heterosexual marriage and negatively promote same-sex marriage (Smith, 2001).  Neo-conservative views seem to not promote equality, instead inequality, not allowing gay and lesbian people to have the same rights not only in marriage but also in health benefits of same sex couples (Smith, 2001).  This is directly associated with the Boy Scouts and the equal rights of these young men.  This is a social policy that needs to be re-examined for James Dale, Ryan Anderson, and any other human being in the world that identifies with the LGBTTTIQ community.

Britney

References

CNN Wire Staff. (2012). Boy Scout Leadership affirms policy of excluding ‘open and avowed’ gays.            

Retrieved October 29, 2012 from http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/17/us/boy-scouts-gay/index.html

Griffin, S. (2006).  The Modern American:  Leave Those Kids Alone: Why the First Amendment Does Not Protect the Boy Scouts of America In Its Discrimination Against Gay Youth Members. 2, 6-11.

N/A (2012, October 23).  Gay Teen Fights for Eagle Scout Rank [Television broadcast]. CNN.

Smith, A., 2001. The Politicization of Marriage in Contemporary American Public Policy: The Defense of Marriage Act and the Personal Responsibility Act. Citizenship Studies, 5 (3), 303-320.