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Boy Scouts of America like totally end their ban on gay leaders*

Her

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*but allow for church-sponsored troops to do as they wish

link

The Boy Scouts of America on Monday ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons.

The new policy, aimed at easing a controversy that has embroiled the Boy Scouts for years, takes effect immediately. It was approved by the BSA's National Executive Board on a 45-12 vote during a closed-to-the-media teleconference.

"For far too long this issue has divided and distracted us," said the BSA's president, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "Now it's time to unite behind our shared belief in the extraordinary power of Scouting to be a force for good."

The stage had been set for Monday's action on May 21, when Gates told the Scouts' national meeting that the long-standing ban on participation by openly gay adults was no longer sustainable. He said the ban was likely to be the target of lawsuits that the Scouts likely would lose.

Two weeks ago, the new policy was approved unanimously by the BSA's 17-member National Executive Committee. It would allow local Scout units to select adult leaders without regard to sexual orientation — a stance that several Scout councils have already adopted in defiance of the official national policy.

In 2013, after heated internal debate, the BSA decided to allow openly gay youth as scouts, but not gay adults as leaders. Several denominations that collectively sponsor close to half of all Scout units — including the Roman Catholic church, the Mormon church and the Southern Baptist Convention — have been apprehensive about ending the ban on gay adults.

The BSA's top leaders have pledged to defend the right of any church-sponsored units to continue excluding gays as adult volunteers. But that assurance has not satisfied some conservative church leaders,'

"It's hard for me to believe, in the long term, that the Boy Scouts will allow religious groups to have the freedom to choose their own leaders," said the Rev. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

"In recent years I have seen a definite cooling on the part of Baptist churches toward the Scouts," Moore said. "This will probably bring that cooling to a freeze."

as for a general explanation of their rulings:

—Prospective employees of the national organization could no longer be denied a staff position on the basis of sexual orientation.

—Gay leaders who were previously removed from Scouting because of the ban would have the opportunity to reapply for volunteer positions.

—If otherwise qualified, a gay adult would be eligible to serve as a Scoutmaster or unit leader.

the rest can be read at your own leisure

Aside from the obligatory 'Well shucks! Gays can do more shit now! Hooray!' comments, do any of you have any thoughts on the matter?
 
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If they hadn't dragged their feet over this, made such a point of allowing gay scouts but not gay leaders, I might be sort of happy now. But they're still a pseudo-religious organization and this move reeks of desperation and trying to have it both ways: pleasing their staunch conservative supporters and trying to stay relevant in the modern world. (It's a kind of microcosm of conservative politics in America in that way.) I'd honestly rather they stayed clearly discriminatory instead of these kind of baby steps measures because then maybe they could go the way of the dinosaurs and maybe something more deserving could take the space they occupy. I mean, when the Girl Scouts made that announcement that they accepted all girls including trans girls as a matter of course that should have sent a really strong message to the Boy Scouts but it fell on deaf ears.
 

Pinkie-Dawn

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Can we just all agree what we do in bed should not affect anything outside it? You ability to be a scout leader isn't affected by your sexual preferences, so why should it matter.
I assume it's because of the dangers of pedophiles. These are boy scouts who are less than 13 years old, and if a gay/bi leader happens to be attracted to little boys , there's going to be a region-wide outrage, which is why up until now they only want hetero leaders, in order to prevent a potential child molestation.
 

Pokemon Game Fan

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While I agree that this took wayyyyy too long, I also think it's a good move nonetheless. Slowly, piece by piece, we as a society are moving forward to an eventual point where it wont be even a little bit weird to be homosexual. It wont be out of the ordinary, no one will ever have to feel different for being gay.
 

Her

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I assume it's because of the dangers of pedophiles. These are boy scouts who are less than 13 years old, and if a gay/bi leader happens to be attracted to little boys , there's going to be a region-wide outrage, which is why up until now they only want hetero leaders, in order to prevent a potential child molestation.

Boy if you don't get
 

£

You're gonna have a bad time.
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Congratulations America, you're finally arriving in the 21st Century and we're all so proud of you.

Still a very very long way to go though in terms of how homophobic areas of America are though.
 
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