Good news 2: Boy Scouts to drop bar to gay scouts
According to news reports, the Boy Scouts of America might be changing its policy of rejecting members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, community.
Just last year, the Scouts "emphatically reaffirmed" its policy of excluding gays as both leaders and as Scouts. But in the face of increasing public outrage and the accelerating loss of corporate, United Way, and local government support, the outfit decided that discretion is indeed the better part of valor and apparently is about to announce a revised policy that will not only lift the ban on gay participants but allow local organizations to decide for themselves whether or not to accept gay scouts.
That second provision sort of takes back part of the first because it still allows local Scout troops to discriminate, but it is at least a real step in the right direction - that is, into the 21st century.
The fact that this word comes just days after a Cub Scout pack in Maryland was forced by the national BSA office to remove a non-discrimination statement including sexual orientation that had been overwhelmingly approved by the parents involved gives added piquancy to the news.
I keep saying - this is one area where clearly, unquestionably, the long moral arc of the universe is bending toward justice.
Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/boy-scouts-of-america-gay-member-ban-drop_n_2567887.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/17/boy-scouts-gay-ban_n_1679854.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-228754.html
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/28/16739587-boy-scouts-close-to-ending-ban-on-gay-members-leaders?lite
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/27/boy-scout-pack-drops-gay-_n_2561605.html
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