Morally Straight

Last week, the Boy Scouts of America altered their standing policy against allowing gays in the organization... sort of. In a vote that reportedly broke 61-38%, they decided that openly gay youth within the group will be allowed, while openly gay adults serving in leadership roles will still be banned. The decision smacks of the need to do something to address the corporate sponsors that had discontinued their charitable donations to the Boy Scouts due to the old policy. And yet, it's a decision assured to appease virtually no one.

It has at least served to expose the lie (admittedly, an already transparent one) of the organizations that claim to be "pro-traditional marriage" and not "anti-gay." After all, what possible reason should the National Organization for Marriage have, given their stated charter to protect marriage, to care what the Boy Scouts do for their membership policy? But in the wake of the vote, NOM president Bran Brown issued a brief but predictably hateful press release that concluded with: "It's the beginning of the end for what once was one of America's noblest organizations."

For those of us who support equality, it's difficult to mark this one in the "win" column. Yes, boys and young men will now be able to be a part of Boy Scouts without having to lie in direct contradiction to the stated values of the organization to be honest and moral. But if young gay men with their Arrows of Light freshly in hand then want to then turn around and give back to Scouts by becoming a leader and mentoring the next generation, they can forget it. What sort of organization holds that its own former members are unfit to be leaders?

What's unfortunate here is that this policy change is some especially dark bigotry masquerading as tolerance. On paper, it looks like progress, that "at least now the kids can be accepted." It looks and feels like, say, Colorado legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples, where you know that marriage itself is still banned by the state constitution, so you celebrate the incremental victory.

But when you ask yourself what sort of thinking informs the decision not to allow gay adults, that's when the ugliness is revealed. This is more of the fearmongering, that belief that gay people are also pedophiles... or at best, that they're somehow out to "convert" more impressionable youth to their "lifestyle." And not only is that complete nonsense, the thought process is exposed simply by the fact that adult women are allowed to lead scout troops. No one seems afraid that a straight woman is going to molest a young Scout in the way they fear the same from a gay man. And what if the female Scout leader is a lesbian? There's no possibility at all of attraction there... but the woman is a lesbian, and not allowed to be a Scout leader under the new policy.

So overall, this one doesn't feel like cause for celebration to me, not like the recent three legislative votes in Rhode Island, Delaware, and Minnesota that have made same-sex marriage legal there. No doubt for the Boy Scouts this is indeed a stepping stone to get to true equality, but until that happens, I withhold my enthusiasm.