Op-ed: My Life as a Gay Boy Sut

Contents:

• CAN A GAY BOY SUT SHARE A TENT WH ANOTHER BOY? BOY SUTS SURVEY MEMBERS ON ANTI-GAY POLICY
• GAY BOY SUTS? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR BOYS?
• BOY SUTS OF AMERI VOT TO ALLOW GAY SUT LEARS
• BOY SUTS LOST 2 LN MEMBERS SCE LIFTG BAN ON GAY YOUTH; NOW MIRED SEX ABE CLAIMS
• BOY SUTS CUT AGE LIM TO 18 MOVE THAT WILL IMPACT GAYS
• BOY SUTS CHANGE POLICY ON GAY LEARS
• A MIXED MSAGE FOR GAY BOY SUTS
• CONFSNS OF A GAY BOY SUT
• BOY SUTS TO ALLOW GAY YOUTHS TO JO
• OP-ED: MY LIFE AS A GAY BOY SUT
• BOY SUTS VOTE TO END BAN ON GAY SUTS; GAY ADULTS STILL BARRED

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

” 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. 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.

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

GAY BOY SUTS? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR BOYS?

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.

BOY SUTS OF AMERI VOT TO ALLOW GAY SUT LEARS

"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. “Boy Suts of Ameri, ” the group said, “believ that homosexual nduct is nsistent wh the obligatns the Sut Oath and Sut Law to be morally straight and clean thought, word and ed. ) The advent of the Obama admistratn led to several polici aimed at improvg the liv of gays and lbians, and the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that banned openly gay men, lbians and bisexuals om ary service was overturned same year, the Boy Suts of Ameri executive board began what would bee a two-year review of s policy on gays.

But 2013, as the group faced cricism om lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr rights groups that assailed as phg discrimatory polici, the Boy Suts formally announced an end to s ban on gay Suts. Gat, who served unr Print Obama when “don’t ask, don’t tell” was repealed, urged the group to end s ban on gay lears. Wahls, who found Suts for Equaly, a nonprof group that advot for stronger protectns the anizatn for gay and transgenr people, ld the move.

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.

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

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. 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. ”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. The attendant aged 21 or 22 was also mando and all the guys were that 08, 2018#42018-04-08T15:19This may have been the se the past, but I spect that the nudy factor may be limed now due to fear of beg labelled as "gay.

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

And I don't necsarily blame adolcent mal who are not gay for feelg unfortable beg nu the prence of those who are (or are prumed to be). I am not gay, but I do thk that our society needs to move beyond this level of disfort wh the ia of those who 08, 2018#52018-04-08T16:31wyliedk wrote:.

This may have been the se the past, but I spect that the nudy factor may be limed now due to fear of beg labelled as "gay. “On Monday July 27 the natnal executive board ratified a rolutn removg the natnal rtrictn on openly gay lears and employe, ” Boy Suts of Ameri Print Robert Gat said a vio statement on Monday.

BOY SUTS CHANGE POLICY ON GAY LEARS

“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 Rrights Campaign Print Chad Griff a statement. “However, the admissn of openly gay lears is nsistent wh the doctr of the Church and what have tradnally been the valu of the Boy Suts of Ameri.

A MIXED MSAGE FOR GAY BOY SUTS

However, former Boy Sut learship team member Jon Langbert told CNN’s Carol Costello he believ the new policy isn’t a cure-all, sce lol troops will still be allowed to make the cisn on whether to allow gay lears.

“It creat a b of a ms when you don’t have one global policy for the Suts, ” Langbert add, notg that the natnal anizatn allows gay adults as employe.

The ban on gay adults servg as sutmasters remas headle, late last week, sound like good news: the learship of the Boy Suts of Ameri was remendg to s erng board that no longer bar openly gay young people om participatg Sutg.

CONFSNS OF A GAY BOY SUT

“While perspectiv and opns vary signifintly, parents, adults the Sutg muny, and teens alike tend to agree that youth should not be nied the benefs of Sutg, ” a Boy Sut statement read, addg that the new le “rerc that Sutg is a youth program, and any sexual nduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual, by youth of Sutg age is ntrary to the virtu of Sutg. Gay-rights groups said did not go far enough, while Tony Perks, the print of the Fay Rearch Council, lled the proposed policy, accurately, “herent. ” Perks ntued, “The proposal says, sence, that homosexualy is morally acceptable until a boy turns 18—then, when he of age, he’s removed om the Suts.

)In fact, nyg adults (even young adults) the opportuny to participate as Sut lears, the new policy rerc long disproven misnceptns that adult gays and lbians are child predators or otherwise immoral, or would rec children to homosexualy. The four nveyed a ‘nearly universal opn’ wh their field that homosexualy is not a risk factor for the sexual abe of children. Dale, by a vote of 5 to 4, that the Suts uld legally discrimate agast gays bee as a private anizatn they had a nstutnal right to eedom of associatn so long as opposn to homosexualy was part of their re “exprsive msage.

BOY SUTS TO ALLOW GAY YOUTHS TO JO

What kd of “exprsive msage” do send to a young gay Sut when the anizatn tells him that will tolerate him while he is a child but, bee of his orientatn, he is eligible to participate as he gets olr, prumably bee he is seen as unf or unsafe to be around children? 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.

OP-ED: MY LIFE AS A GAY BOY SUT

On July 27, a full 25 years after they revoked Dale’s membership, the anizatn announced would extend membership to openly gay lears.

BOY SUTS VOTE TO END BAN ON GAY SUTS; GAY ADULTS STILL BARRED

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.