Boy Suts to repeal ban on gay lears, wh limatns | PBS News Weekend

Contents:

• BOY SUTS TO REPEAL BAN ON GAY LEARS, WH LIMATNS
• BOY SUTS OF AMERI VOT TO ALLOW GAY SUT LEARS
• GAY BOY SUTS? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR BOYS?
• BOY SUTS LOST 2 LN MEMBERS SCE LIFTG BAN ON GAY YOUTH; NOW MIRED SEX ABE CLAIMS
• CAN A GAY BOY SUT SHARE A TENT WH ANOTHER BOY? BOY SUTS SURVEY MEMBERS ON ANTI-GAY POLICY
• BOY SUTS CUT AGE LIM TO 18 MOVE THAT WILL IMPACT GAYS
• BOY SUTS TO ALLOW GAY YOUTHS TO JO
• BOY SUTS CHANGE POLICY ON GAY LEARS
• BOY SUTS VS. GAYS
• BOY SUTS: Y TO GAYS, NO TO ATHEISTS
• WHERE TO GO WHEN IM YOUNG GAY? - AMSTERDAM FOM

BOY SUTS TO REPEAL BAN ON GAY LEARS, WH LIMATNS

The Boy Suts of Ameri is expected to end s ban on openly gay lears a limed manner Monday, a historic cisn for one of the natn’s largt youth anizatns, whose s-long stggle over whether to clu gays s ranks has both mirrored and fueled the broar natnal bate over LGBT rights. The Suts’ current adult learship standards policy prohibs membership to “dividuals who are open or avowed homosexuals.

Over the past two s, the anizatn has been creasgly embroiled by battl over whether to ntue excludg gays, a stance that has threatened the Suts wh the specter of stly ligatn and ed some rporate sponsors, cludg Merck, UPS, Uned Way and Intel to whdraw support. In 2013, the Suts cid to allow gay youths to participate sutg, a policy that took effect the followg year. Secretary of Defense, ed a speech at the Boy Suts’ annual natnal meetg this year to ll on the anizatn to repeal the ban on openly gay adults.

In his speech, Gat said that a number of factors, cludg potential discrimatn lawsus, ternal disput over the policy and the impendg Supreme Court gay marriage cisn had nvced him that the le was untenable. But the summer of 1990, Dale received a letter rmg him that his membership had been revoked, simply bee he was gay.

BOY SUTS OF AMERI VOT TO ALLOW GAY SUT LEARS

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.

GAY BOY SUTS? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR BOYS?

This after the Boy Suts’ move two years ago to lift s ban on membership to gay youth. 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.

The recent cisn to fally end the ban on openly gay lears should, therefore, be celebrated.

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.

BOY SUTS LOST 2 LN MEMBERS SCE LIFTG BAN ON GAY YOUTH; NOW MIRED SEX ABE CLAIMS

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.

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. "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.

CAN A GAY BOY SUT SHARE A TENT WH ANOTHER BOY? BOY SUTS SURVEY MEMBERS ON ANTI-GAY POLICY

Supreme Court upheld the Suts' right to exclu an assistant sutmaster, Jam Dale, after he me out as gay.

"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. Later, 2015, lifted s ban on gay sutmasters, spe the anizatn’s history of sexual abe by the same. In 1990, the BSA revoked Jam Dale’s volvement on the grounds that homosexuals were banned om membership.

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.

BOY SUTS CUT AGE LIM TO 18 MOVE THAT WILL IMPACT GAYS

The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms homosexualy, the clatn of beg sexually attracted to the same sex, is herently disorred (CCC 2357).

The Boy Suts of Ameri, changg s polici to clu homosexuals, opened Pandora’s box. An all-male anizatn cludg gays should have secured the protectn and safety of the young Suts participatg the BSA. KurkiisEight years after liftg a ban on homosexual youth when boasted more than 2.

BOY SUTS TO ALLOW GAY YOUTHS TO JO

The reasons ced by the AP for the recent drop membership is petn om sports leagu, a perceptn that the BSA is old fashned and the BSA, however, has been steadily losg members, particularly om nservative Christian fai, sce 2013, when adopted an amendment that effectively lifts the ban on homosexual youth the an terview wh The Christian Post that year, Elizabeth Prchard, the pack mtee chair for Pack 928 Southlake, Texas, warned that the vote would acture the anizatn and sre away members who disagreed wh the lg. "Sce 2013, the BSA announced further chang s membership policy allowg openly gay sut lears 2015. ” The are some of the qutns on a survey beg nducted by the Boy Suts of Ameri as the private youth anizatn prepar to ci whether should end s ntroversial policy banng gay Suts and lears.

BOY SUTS CHANGE POLICY ON GAY LEARS

But this time, the BSA ed the survey to add qutns about the policy banng gays (those qutns went only to adults) spokman Deron Smh, who provid the qutns on the survey to NBC News, said an email that “the BSA is mted to dialogue on the topic of s membership standards policy, wh the Sutg fay at the lol and natnal levels. The Boy Suts’ policy has creasgly been a sore spot for the anizatn over the last year, followg the dismissal of a n lear bee she is a lbian and the nial of the Eagle Sut rank to a California teen bee he is gay.

Tristam HarrgtonWhen the BSA announced late January that may dch the natnal policy and stead let lol sponsorg anizatns ci if gays n jo, the anizatn received a flood of rpons om both sis. The Boy Suts have asked for the surveys to be returned by April BSA also asked if the currently policy was a “re value” of Sutg and if rponnts would leave the BSA if a cisn was ma that disagreed wh their qutns on the survey clu:A gay male troop lear, along wh another adult lear, is takg a group of boys on a mpg trip followg the youth protectn guil of two-ep learship. Is acceptable or unacceptable for the gay adult lear to take adolcent boys on an overnight mpg trip?

A troop is chartered by an anizatn that do not believe homosexualy is wrong and allows gays to be misters. Johnny’s pack is chartered to a church where the doctre of that fah do not teach that homosexualy is wrong.

BOY SUTS VS. GAYS

His troop is chartered to a church where the doctre of that fah also teach that homosexualy is wrong.

Steve, an openly gay youth, appli to be a member the troop and is nied membership. Related stori: Boy Suts: We need more time for cisn on gay SutsAfter years of heartache, gay Suts and supporters react warily over proposal to lift ban'Gravely distrsed': Relign looms large over Boy Suts cisn on gays 'BATTLESTATIONS!

Those standards clu barrg “open or avowed” gay adults om jog and have been at the center of a ntroversy that has roiled one of Ameri’s most popular youth anizatns for BSA’s Natnal Executive Board Febary ma the cisn a rolutn lowerg the eligibily age such programs as the high-adventure -ed Venturg program, Sea Suts and the Orr of the Arrow, the Boy Suts’ Natnal Honor Society, Smh said.

BOY SUTS: Y TO GAYS, NO TO ATHEISTS

After last year’s ntroversial ballot to allow gay youth, gay Boy Suts believed they uld ntue on om that program at 18 to Venturg or the Sea Suts program and rema a member the Suts and tw brothers Augt and Liam Easton-Calabria, om left, pose for a portra their home Seattle, Wash., on March 27, 2014. After that “young people who are 18 but not yet 21, will be required to register as adults but may still participate those programs, ” he Boy Suts have grappled wh their policy banng gays for years.

In a live webst jt before the ballot to allow gay youth was held last May, BSA lears said gay teens uld still participate the programs that fe olr boys as up to, but not yet, then, the Natnal Council voted to accept the new youth membership standards which said participatn was “open to all youth who meet the specific membership requirements to jo the Cub Sut, Boy Sut, Varsy Sut, Sea Sut, and Venturg programs.

WHERE TO GO WHEN IM YOUNG GAY? - AMSTERDAM FOM

”Liam Easton-Calabria, an 18-year-old openly gay Eagle Sut Venturg said the cisn was “like a slap the face.

”Zach Wahls, -founr of Suts for Equaly, which advot for cln of gays Sutg, said his group was “eply disappoted this cisn and fear for the gay youth who thought they were safe and will now be removed om Sutg unr this new, ill-advised le. Followg a long-standg ntroversy, the anizatn 2014 lifted their ban on openly gay members, 2015 allowed openly gay adult sut lears for the first time, and 2017 allowed transgenr boys to jo for the first time.

Dpe matag their partnership wh the Suts up until the May 2018 announcement, Church lears have recent years greeted succsive BSA announcements about the cln of gay, transgenr and female members wh obv unease and utn. The Mormon Church officially accepts openly gay and lbian dividuals as members and lears, but only if they rema celibate, as the Church's web se not: "Sexual relatns between a man and woman who are not married, or between people of the same sex, vlate one of our Father Heaven’s most important laws and get the way of our eternal progrs. When the BSA moved to accept gay and transgenr members recent years, the Church obtaed assuranc om the Suts that the Church uld "operate s programs ways that are nsistent wh our standards and beliefs.