Church asks Boy Suts to leave over gay rights

Contents:

• ROBERT GAT, AMERI'S UNLIKELY GAY-RIGHTS HERO
• GAY BOY SUTS? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR BOYS?
• BOY SUTS OF AMERI VOT TO ALLOW GAY SUT LEARS
• OPEN TO ALL BOYS? THE BOY SUTS AND GAY RIGHTS
• THE SUPREME COURT RULGS THAT HAVE SHAPED GAY RIGHTS AMERI
• CHURCH ASKS BOY SUTS TO LEAVE OVER GAY RIGHTS
• THE AMBIVALENCE OF CUB SUT PARENTS AS SUTG EXCLUS GAY ADULTS
• AFTER VOTE ALLOWG GAY KIDS TO BEE BOY SUTS, SOME FAI LL QUS
• BEHD THE SCEN 2000 WHEN SUPREME COURT LIBERALS THOUGHT NAZI AND DRED STT REFERENC GAY RIGHTS DISSENT WERE DISTRACTG
• BOY SUTS TO REPEAL BAN ON GAY LEARS, WH LIMATNS
• BOY SUTS TO ALLOW GAY YOUTHS TO JO

ROBERT GAT, AMERI'S UNLIKELY GAY-RIGHTS HERO

But the summer of 1990, Dale received a letter rmg him that his membership had been revoked, simply bee he was gay. Dpe Dale’s 12-year relatnship wh the Boy Suts, the anizatn severed their ti wh him after learng of a news article that intified him as the -print of his universy’s Lbian/Gay Alliance. In a 5-4 cisn, the Supreme Court narrowly affirmed the Boy Suts right to ny membership to openly gay dividuals.

On July 27, a full 25 years after they revoked Dale’s membership, the anizatn announced would extend membership to openly gay lears. The cisn was an important step, but bee left the ban place for openly gay lears, was an unsatisfyg one.

More troublgly, though, the hatn also perpetuated the historic and homophobic perceptn of gay adults as promiscuo dividuals wh nefar tentns. Although is now possible for gay lears to serve openly the Boys Suts of Ameri, dog so is still jt that: a possibily, not a guarantee. The Boy Suts has lifted s ban on openly gay lears and employe, but has allowed relig chartered anizatns, which operate more than 70 percent of the Boy Suts Sutg uns, “to e relig beliefs as creria for selectg adult lears, cludg matters of sexualy, ” acrdg to their announcement.

GAY BOY SUTS? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR BOYS?

Robert Gat, Ameri's Unlikely Gay-Rights HeroThe former secretary of fense lobbied for the repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell, ” and has now end the Boy Suts’ ban on gay Zalki / APEagle Sut.

BOY SUTS OF AMERI VOT TO ALLOW GAY SUT LEARS

In 1991, while director of central telligence, Gat orred an quiry to whether CIA personnel had ever been blackmailed to pnage bee they were gay. (In 1984, stunts sued, succsfully, to force the school to regnize a gay-stunt anizatn; the lg effectively removed all legal prohibns on LGBT stunt groups natnwi. Remend ReadgGiven the rapid advance of gay rights over the last , ’s tough to remember jt how different the stage was 2006, when Gat replaced Donald Rumsfeld as fense secretary.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” had had plenty of crics sce was enacted 1994—Print Bill Clton himself would have preferred simply openg the ary to gay servicemembers—but was still firmly place. He repeatedly told reporters that he was not reviewg or rensirg the, several months to his tenure, the chairman of the Jot Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, said that “homosexual acts between dividuals are immoral, ” Gat tried to avoid discsg the ments, and said of DADT, “As long as the law is what is, that's what we'll do.

OPEN TO ALL BOYS? THE BOY SUTS AND GAY RIGHTS

” (Pace, who retired September 2007, reerated his personal opposn to homosexualy durg an ex hearg wh Congrs, but also endorsed gay service the ary. ) When, two months later, the ary ejected 58 sperately need Arabic lguists bee they were gay, Gat still said the policy wasn’t unr after Print Obama was elected and Gat accepted an offer to stay on as secretary, he remaed ut. Though the print pledged to repeal DADT durg his first State of the Unn, Gat exprsed a preference March 2009 to “ph that one down the road a ltle b, ” furiatg gay activists.

He also issued a survey on gays to servicemembers, a step that LGBT activists, who saw as puttg civil rights to a vote, disagreed wh.

Gat refully studied the effects repeal would have on the ary and cid the downsis were mimal; and he looked at the way the untry was changg and realized that the policy would have to end soon, and that he wanted to end on the Pentagon’s terms to ensure the ary’s stabily and long-term DADT fight offers a template for the openg to gay sutmasters. Gat had exprsed tempered sympathy for gays sutg as far back as 1993, when he told Wicha Rotarians, “Valu central to Sutg are unr challenge today as never before: challeng to our belief God, challeng om Amerins who are gay.

THE SUPREME COURT RULGS THAT HAVE SHAPED GAY RIGHTS AMERI

”The Boy Suts had already begun to dismantle some of their anti-gay polici when Gat was elected print late 2013.

“I would have supported havg gay Sutmasters, but at the same time, I fully accept the cisn that was mocratilly arrived at by 1, 500 volunteers om across the entire untry. The pot was to guarantee stutnal May 2015, one year after sayg he wouldn’t reopen the issue of gay sutmasters, Gat did jt that.

CHURCH ASKS BOY SUTS TO LEAVE OVER GAY RIGHTS

Regardls, the policy marks a ser shift for BSA, and cements Robert Gat’s place history: as one of the least likely but most succsful proponents for gay equaly stutnal Ameri.

At the time, the BSA stated that havg gay Sutmasters ntradicted the Sut Oath keepg s members “morally straight. In fact, BSA dit a whole paragraph s Sut or Sutmaster eligibily requirements to those who have homosexual clatns.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms homosexualy, the clatn of beg sexually attracted to the same sex, is herently disorred (CCC 2357). An all-male anizatn cludg gays should have secured the protectn and safety of the young Suts participatg the BSA.

THE AMBIVALENCE OF CUB SUT PARENTS AS SUTG EXCLUS GAY ADULTS

The erng body of the Boy Suts of Ameri voted Monday to end s s-long ban on gay sut anizatn's natnal executive board, meetg Texas, nclud that the policy of excludg gay adults "was no longer legally fensible. " The cisn was approved by 79 percent of the the natnal ban is gone, effective immediately, lol sutg uns reta the abily to reject gay applints for learship posns if hirg them would vlate the un's relig Boy Suts natnal anizatn said would fend any lol sutg group's "good fah refal" to adm a sutg lear based upon the group's relig prcipl.

"The vote reprents a remarkably fast turnaround for the Boy Suts, which only two years ago voted to adm gay young people as suts but kept the ban on adult gay sut then, sutg officials have said, rapidly movg legal velopments forced a told the anizatn May that mt brace for change. "The vote allowg lol uns to turn away gay lears was nmned by some former Sut lears as a timid measure that would allow discrimatn to McGrah, a gay adult lear om wh the Transatlantic Council of Boy Suts of Ameri, lled the vote "an expedient move to preempt legal actn agast BSA natnal, rather than a genue attempt to make BSA clive.

AFTER VOTE ALLOWG GAY KIDS TO BEE BOY SUTS, SOME FAI LL QUS

"John Stemberger, a Florida lawyer who started a breakaway anizatn lled Trail Life USA after the 2013 vote to adm gay Suts, said by endg the natnal ban on gay sut lears, the Boy Suts "plac the church and relig stutns who sponsor BSA troops at greater legal risk.

"Today’s vote by the Boy Suts of Ameri to allow gay, lbian and bisexual adults to work and volunteer is a wele step toward erasg a sta on this important anizatn, " said Human Rights Campaign Print Chad Griff a statement after the vote. The Suts claim that bee their creed holds that homosexualy is immoral, they mt be ee to exclu gays om membership.

BEHD THE SCEN 2000 WHEN SUPREME COURT LIBERALS THOUGHT NAZI AND DRED STT REFERENC GAY RIGHTS DISSENT WERE DISTRACTG

In the Supreme Court, the Suts assert that pellg them to accept gay "lears" vlat their rights of speech and associatn. The Suts ask: How n we effectively exprs our msage that homosexualy is immoral if we are legally required to tolerate lears who by their very liftyle ntradict that msage? The anizatn do not exprs the view that homosexualy is immoral - at least, not any Boy Sut lerature provid to members, lears or the public.

BOY SUTS TO REPEAL BAN ON GAY LEARS, WH LIMATNS

Heterosexual troop lears, and an entire troop, have stated publicly that they believe homosexualy is moral, and the Suts have done nothg to expel them. In short, the Suts have not even taken advantage of the nstutnally-protected opportuni they have to exprs their anti-homosexualy msage directly.

In light of this fact, is disgenuo for them to claim that simply havg gay members is unnstutnal bee directly unrm their abily to exprs this msage. What the Suts have done is to exclu persons based on their stat as gay, not based on their views or msage. The Supreme Court of the Uned Stat (SCOTUS) was tablished 1789, but didn't le on a se that directly fluenced gay rights until nearly 170 years later.

BOY SUTS TO ALLOW GAY YOUTHS TO JO

Sce then, the hight feral urt the untry has weighed on about a dozen other LGBTQ rights-related s, which have had powerful impacts on the gay rights movement and the liv of LGBTQ Supreme Court's First Gay Rights CaseSCOTUS's first gay rights se foced on the First Amendment—specifilly, how the rights of ee speech and prs apply to homosexual ntent. In 1954, Los Angel' postmaster Otto Olen orred feral postal thori to seize ONE, a homosexual magaze (the natn's first), argug that the magaze's ntent was "obscene.

In 1970, Jack Baker and Michael McConnell beme the first gay uple to apply for a marriage license—they were nied. In 1970, they were the first gay uple to apply for a marriage the uple appealed, SCOTUS dismissed the se "for want of a substantial feral qutn, " effectively tablishg the se as precent.

'Special Rights' OverledCompared wh the precedg s, the 1990s and 2000s were relatively by for SCOTUS on gay rights issu.