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No surprise: Boy Scouts of America punts – no vote on its ban on gay members

By: Pam Spaulding Wednesday February 6, 2013 1:58 pm

I have to say that I was not surprised at this news at all. The media maelstrom about this topic rendered the decision by the Boy Scouts of America National Executive Board so hot — the here-come-the-pedophiles/America-values-are-being-destroyed camp versus the camp reflecting the increasing acceptance of LGBTs in contemporary American culture — left the Boy Scouts with a no-win situation, if you’re going strictly by PR. So they punted. (Dallas Voice):

The decision came early in the third day of the board’s three-day meeting at the DFW Airport Marriott. A possible vote was expected today, but the board has decided to discus the issue more at its national board meeting in May where 1,400 members will vote on a resolution. That meeting will take place May 22 at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine.

“After careful consideration and extensive dialogue within the Scouting family, along with comments from those outside the organization, the volunteer officers of the Boy Scouts of America’s National Executive Board concluded that due to the complexity of this issue, the organization needs time for a more deliberate review of its membership policy,” BSA spokesman Deron Smith said in a statement. “To that end, the National Executive Board directed its committees to further engage representatives of Scouting’s membership and listen to their perspectives and concerns. This will assist the officers’ work on a resolution on membership standards.”

Yeah, the BSA will need a lot of careful consideration about what the fallout may or may not be. Personally, I think of the Girl Scouts don’t have a problem with non-heterosexual membership, the Boy Scouts need to get with the times. But in the “real world” of media wall-to-wall coverage, I doubt the org is prepared when both sides were at the ready with reactions to the delay in action. Take hate group head Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council:

spacer “The leaders of the Boy Scouts were wise not to abandon their longstanding national membership standards, as they were reportedly on the brink of doing. We thank the Scout parents and members of the public who responded to these reports with an overwhelming outpouring of support for maintaining the Scouts’ timeless values that have served the Scouts and the nation well for 103 years.

“However, it is not enough that they postpone a decision. Instead, the BSA board should publicly re-affirm their current standards, as they did just last July. We look forward to continuing to work with scouting parents, leaders of the faith-based organizations that charter over two-thirds of the packs and the troops.  We will also continue to communicate with the Scout leadership about the grave consequences that would result if they were to compromise their moral standards in the face of threats from corporate elites and homosexual activists.”

BTW, Perkins made an @ss out of himself on CNN earlier today, going on and on about the “safety” of the boys around other boys or scout leaders who might be gay (despite the org’s massive scandal of scout abuse with its gay ban in place); Soledad O’Brien reminded him that one of those affected by the ban who followed him on the air to discuss the issue was a lesbian den mother booted from her troop.

That lesbian mom is Jennifer Tyrrell from Bridgeport, Ohio. She was the leader of her son’s Cub Scout Pack in April 2012. Tyrrell, with the support of GLAAD, started a petition on Change.org that rallied hundreds of thousands urging the Boy Scouts to welcome gay Scouts and leaders.

spacer Right, courtesy of GLAADOn February 4, 2013, ousted Boy Scout mom Jennifer Tyrrell, gay Eagle Scout Will Oliver, gay former Scoutmaster Greg Bourke, and Eric Andresen, father of a gay Scout denied his Eagle Award convened on the Boy Scouts of America’s headquarters and brought the voices of more than a million Americans who want the BSA to end its ban on gay scouts and volunteers.

Tyrell’s reaction to today’s statement by the BSA:

“A scout is supposed to be brave, and the Boy Scouts failed to be brave today,” said Tyrrell, who was in Dallas on Monday to deliver the signatures from her Change.org petition. “The Boy Scouts had the chance to help countless young people and devoted parents, but they’ve failed us yet again. No parent should have to look their child in the eye and explain that the Boy Scouts don’t want us.”“Our fight will continue,” added Tyrrell, “and we will continue to educate donors and supporters of the Boy Scouts about the effects of their anti-gay policy.”

GLAAD President Herndon Graddick:

 ”An organization that serves youth and chooses to intentionally hurt dedicated young people and hardworking parents not only flies in the face of American principles, but the principles of being a Boy Scout,” said . “The Boy Scouts of America is choosing to ignore the cries of millions, including religious institutions, current scouting families, and corporate sponsors, but these cries will not be silenced. We’re living in a culture where hurting young gay people because of who they are is unpopular and discriminatory. They had the chance to end the pain this ban has caused to young people and parents, they chose to extend the pain.”

Closer to home, here’s the reaction from my friend Matt Comer, editor of Charlotte LGBT community newspaper QNotes and a former Scout dismissed at age 14 after starting a gay-straight alliance at his Winston-Salem, NC through The Inclusive Scouting Network, which he co-founded:

spacer While it is disappointing the Boy Scouts of America decided not to take any action on their national anti-gay membership and leadership policy today, we are encouraged knowing that this discussion, the first and only time national BSA leaders have openly indicated they are ready to accept gay Scouts, will continue.

Today’s action by the BSA’s National Executive Board is not a “no;” instead, it is an opportunity for Scouts and Scouters across the country, from the local level to the national level, to continue to press for positive change. We are hopeful that this process will include Scouts and Scouters who have already been subjected to discrimination by the Boy Scouts of America, and we will work diligently to highlight voices of inclusion from local units and chartering organizations across the country in the lead up to May’s national council vote.

In their first edition of the Boy Scouts Handbook in 1911, the Boy Scouts promised that “every American boy shall have the opportunity of becoming a good scout.” It is time for the Boy Scouts of America to live up to the great American ideals and principles they have embodied for more than a century by saying, “We don’t discriminate and discrimination is not okay — period.”

Based on recent polls — including this one from Quinnipiac University — there is public support for lifting the ban.

Strongest support for ending the ban comes from women and Roman Catholics, but a plurality of men and mainline Protestants also support ending the ban. African American and Hispanic people polled showed strong support for ending the ban.

* White Catholics support gay scouts 63 – 25 percent.
* 57 percent of Black and Hispanic people support gay scouts.
* 62 percent of 18-29 year-olds and 61 percent of 30-44 year-olds support gay scouts.

The poll also pointed to the decline in membership numbers. One troubling finding for Scouting in America is that 54 percent of voters say they were Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, while only 36 percent of voters, including 55 percent of former scouts, say they have children in Scouting.

The dilemma for the BSA is that to partially or fully remove its ban is that it believes it will undermine the Supreme Court ruling that allowed its ban to remain in place to date — a private organization determining its membership. Be that as it may (I don’t think it actually does), this move to remove the ban is from the result of growing cultural change, not fiat.

It has to decide whether all of the financial donations and support it has lost from corporate America because of its gay ban is worth holding onto its discriminatory policies.  One of the arguments  represented by Tony Perkins is that there will be a mass exodus from Scouting if the ban is lifted, led by “Christians” who oppose the idea of gay scouts and scout leaders existing in its ranks openly (because obviously they’ve already been there, albeit closeted). That may or may not occur, but the BSA is going to slowly bleed no matter what its decision is. It has just decided to wring their hands over this and let the PR on both sides continue, perhaps in the (futile) hope it will blow over. Not. Going. To. Happen. This particular issue is one of the cultural flashpoints for the social/religious conservative movement as well as the full equality advocates.

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Tags: discrimination, Boy Scouts

UK Coalition for Marriage Puts NOM-Style Spin on Its Marriage Vote Defeat

By: Laurel Ramseyer Wednesday February 6, 2013 10:16 am

spacer Yesterday the UK’s House of Commons overwhelmingly approved the equal marriage bill by a vote of 400 to 175. A full 70% of MPs, more than a supermajority, voted for civil equality.

How does the UK’s anti-gay Coalition for Marriage respond to their sound defeat? “I am pleased that we achieved a very strong ‘no’ vote”.

Shades of National Organization for Marriage claiming yesterday that they “defeated a lame-duck session bill in Illinois that would have legalized same-sex marriage” just as an Illinois state Senate committee passed the bill and sent it to the Senate floor.

Spin, it’s what’s for breakfast when you pretend you’re not eating crow.

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Tags: Marriage equality, National Organization for Marriage, United Kingdom, uk, coalition for marriage

‘Don’t say gay’ bill sponsor Stacey Campfield gets SCHOOLED on TMZ

By: Alvin McEwen Wednesday February 6, 2013 7:51 am

Stacey Campfield, the Tennessee politician behind that awful “Don’t Say Gay” bill in that state recently got schooled big time by the folks at (wait for it) TMZ. This is epically awesome:

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Now allow me to throw out a couple of thoughts.

Campfield oozes with entitlement. He is quintessential anti-gay bigot in that he doesn’t look at gays as normal people.  In his small mind, he doesn’t see lgbts raising children, going to work, and leading normal productive lives. Instead, he has psychologically dissected us from our sexual orientation and then has transformed said orientation into a sex act (sodomy) which is both not totally indigenous to the gay community and not totally avoided to by the heterosexual community. To him, being gay does not exist, except for an act having to do with penises and rectums.

It’s a sad way to dehumanize people and families by reducing them to sex acts thought up in one’s fevered imagination. And what’s worse, it’s not enough for him to believe this way, he wants to codify that ignorant belief into law, which means he wants lgbts and our families to abide by his definition of who we are in spite of the fact that it’s a vicious lie.

While Campfield whines about gays not leaving people alone and trying to allegedly shove our lifestyle down people’s throats, he is the aggressor. No one asked him to push this law which would bar teachers from talking about gay issues with students and force schools to out gay students to their parents.

Campfield is pushing this law by his own volition. He is forcing his beliefs on gay families. He is doing the throat shoving.

Perhaps if Campfield doesnt’ want to be bothered by THE GAYS, perhaps he should practice what he preaches and stop harassing us.

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Tags: Stacey Campfield, tmz

NOM-Rhode Island Posts A Criticism of Episcopal Bishop Nick Knisely Written By A Sect With No RI Representation

By: Laurel Ramseyer Tuesday February 5, 2013 4:36 pm

National Organization for Marriage in Rhode Island claims today that the Episcopal Church is “fractured over same-sex marriage“.  That’s an odd statement to make considering that the Right Reverend W. Nicholas Knisely, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island, has joined the coalition dedicated to passing the marriage equality bill now under consideration by the Rhode [...]

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Tags: Marriage equality, Rhode Island, episcopal church, Orthodox Anglican Communion

British House of Commons Overwhelmingly Approves Equal Marriage Bill

By: Laurel Ramseyer Tuesday February 5, 2013 2:15 pm

After almost six hours of debate during which over 70 Members of Parliament aired their views, the British House of Commons approved the Equal Marriage bill by a vote of 400 to 175. The bill, introduced by PM David Cameron, divided the ruling Conservative Party but passed with strong support from Labour Party and Liberal [...]

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Tags: Marriage equality, United Kingdom, uk, wales, england

Someone Tell NOM That Australia Isn’t The 51st State

By: Laurel Ramseyer Monday February 4, 2013 10:08 pm

The Ruth Institute, a project of National Organization for Marriage, posted the following on their Facebook page: The linked-to Australian newspaper article is about an Australian medical doctor who was cleared by the Australian medical board of misconduct charges stemming from gay-defaming statements he made during testimony to an Australian legislative body. That should have pleased [...]

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Tags: National Organization for Marriage, ruth institute, Australia

Religious right creates eye-burningly BAD video on gays in the Boy Scouts

By: Alvin McEwen Monday February 4, 2013 7:09 pm

OH LORD! This is probably the worse anti-gay video of 2013, but not because it is offensive. It’s because of how badly done it is. Here are a couple of religious right characters talking about how wrong it would be for the Boy Scouts to do away with its “no gays allowed” policy. It simply [...]

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Boy Scouts controversy pits President Obama against anti-gay groups

By: Alvin McEwen Monday February 4, 2013 7:45 am

President Obama has weighed in on the Boy Scouts and his opinion is on the side of right: Meanwhile, 42 of the anti-gay usual cast of characters are running the following ad using the same talking points they beat into the group last week involving pedophilia (which gays have absolutely nothing to do with).

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NOM-Rhode Island Makes False Claims About Religious Voices In The Marriage Equality Debate (Updated)

By: Laurel Ramseyer Saturday February 2, 2013 12:16 pm

Note: The code on yesterday’s original version of this post somehow got corrupted and was irreparable. That post was deleted and recreated here. I have reproduced below the comments left on the original post. On Thursday National Organization for Marriage in Rhode Island, an opponent of Rhode Island’s marriage equality bill (H 5015), posted the [...]

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Tags: Marriage equality, National Organization for Marriage, Rhode Island, christopher plante, nom-ri

Did NOM steal an image from the 1963 March on Washington for its bigotry?

By: Alvin McEwen Thursday January 31, 2013 8:16 am

After the hell lgbts get from some members of the African-American community who accuse them of “highjacking” the Civil Rights Movement, I hope earrings and wigs are snatched off over this one if it turns out to be a fact. The following is a picture of the National Organization for Marriage is using to advertise [...]

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Tags: National Organization for Marriage, bayard rustin, 1963 march on washington
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