Corporate Legal Times
September, 2004
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 10
Boy Scout Pride
Dear Editor:
Bruce Collins is mistaken when he calls Boy Scouts a "fundamentally different" organization from the one he joined 40 years ago. ["An Eagle Scout Takes Issue With Group's Politics" July, p. 7]. Boy Scouts is the same organization with the same values and goals. What is fundamentally different, however, is our times.
Some intolerant elements in our society want to force scouting to abandon its values and to become fundamentally different. They want scouting to forego its constitutional rights, affirmed in 2000 by the Supreme Court in BSA v. Dale, and adopt fundamentally different values from the ones that helped shape the character of Mr. Collins and 106 million other young men over the past 94 years.
It bothers Mr. Collins that scouting is defending itself, even though he acknowledged that it has been "dragged into" the "culture war." He says the tone of our legal-issues web site, bsalegal.org, is defensive. The site does seek to defend our values and to inform the public about the three-decade-long legal assault on scouting. That we need a legal-issues web site is testament to the fact that our constitutional rights are under attack.
Clearly, Mr. Collins longs for a time when the Boy Scout organization could give its undivided attention to the "good stuff" of Scouting: "camping and life skills ..." So do we. Mr. Collins would do well to communicate his displeasure to those directing their discriminatory assault against his beloved Boy Scouts -- the ACLU.
Douglas S. Smith Jr.
National Director of Program
Boy Scouts of America
He was responding to charges that the Boy Scouts discriminates against gay men in Scouting. The irony of the situation is that this man, Douglas S. Smith, Jr. National Director of Program for Boy Scout America pleaded guilty to child pornography. He was sentenced yesterday to 8 years in jail. The same man who only last year was defending the "values" of Scouting is into child pornography.
Another vocal anti-gay critic found guilty. (Hat tip to Ian)
3 comments:
Don't forget Mayor James E. West from Spokane. He's the anti-gay legislator who used his city computer to woo gay men over the Internet. He was also a Boy Scout Executive.
The country is crawling with vocal anti-gay critics who are closeted homosexuals. Are there any Out gay men and women doing these things? I don't think so.
It does seem that homophobia is frequently a sign of deep discomfort with one's own sexual being, yeah.
I think the converse is generally true, too: I suspect there's a connection between (1) being comfortable with one's own heterosexuality and (2) recognizing the legitimacy, value and beauty of gay love in other people's lives.
I tend to agree with you. Most of the real homophobic males I know are just plain weird and strange with a good many other hangups. Most of the normal heterosexual males are "live and let live" types.
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