kay424

Before to many people respond with the same post I wanted to inform you that I was able to find a quotation from the litigation department of the BSA guidelines that does say I, as a human being, living of my own free will and with the constitutional right for the pursuit of my own happiness, am legally not allowed by the BSA as an organization to lead their youth. This saddens me, I will be resigning next week most likely after speaking with our cubmaster and local council as I am a law obiding citizen and do not wish to cause trouble. God bless you all and happy scouting.

I read this post a few days ago and have been giving myself time to think about all sides of this topic before responding. I have attempted with all my being to begin to fathom why people would feel the need to make this a topic on a scouting website. As far as I know the boy scouts of america does not have an anti-gay policy, if I am wrong I would like to see a directly linked website proving my wrongfulness. If this is in fact the case I will be forced to step aside, turn in my uniform and remove myself from the scouting family. I am gay. I am "hiking among you." I am in my 20's, a woman, and I have two nephews in scouting and their desire is that I lead their cub den. I am presently the Wolf and Bear den leaders for our very small pack of twelve children at an underprivledged school. It would sadden me greatly to go, I have overseen my oldest nephews den since we were Tigers and we are finishing up our Bear year with him. It was his desire to bring me in as I am the hiker, the geocacher, the one with all the funny songs, dances, skits and chants. I am not afraid to get down on the floor and be silly, but I know exactly when it is time to get work done. I do not feel as though I should be removed from scouting for the following reasons, I hope any of you still reading this post after knowing the author is gay will hear me out. 1. I am among a small group of people willing to deal with a group of children that can be considered, out of control, at the very least. These are children with a wide array of learning and attention problems and through the years as a smaller part of the BSA family we have become a pack family. Thankfully my personal family is very blessed in our lives, with our assests and with each other, this has allowed us to reach out, not in a subtle rude way, but in a small favors sort of way and give back. 2. I am a happy person, I am not a pedophile as many heterosexuals think all gay people are, just sex crazed individuals that pray on straight, normal people. I live my life behind closed doors so to speak. I let people know that I am gay but I would never dream of even hinting anything other than heterosexual marriage to my scouts or anyone else for that matter. I do not push my sexuality on anyone and if most took the time to get to know a gay person they would realize that gays do not seek to "bring others to our side." 3. Mostly, the biggest reason I would not like to leave scouting is that I would miss it. I would miss every song, every pledge of allegiance, every blue and gold banquet where families radiate pride for their child and every time a tiger cub holds the GPS up in the air and stands by his first found geocache and says "I found this all by myself!" I love scouting and I have taken every training known to scouting. As far as youth protection goes, I don't see a thing that would need to change. Youth Protection follows the value that no adult is to be left alone with a child. Point, blank and period. And I live by that rule as does every adult I know. Two deep leadership. Gay or straight, black or white, red or purple, adults do not share the company of minors EVER. Unless the rule would be changed to, it being okay for adults to be alone with children as long as the adult is not gay, I see no need for a change. And just because I am angry, how many sexual incidents reported are linked to gay indivuduals vs. straight individuals. I am not saying it doesn't happen, and it is NEVER right, but if people are worried about gay people assulting children, step back and look at the numbers. There is no issue. As far as tenting issues? I am very confused. But I will try to straighten this out with myself here. "A heterosexual and a homosexual should not share a tent regardless of male or female." That is the impression I am getting and this goes right back to my above statement, we as a gay community do NOT pray on the straight. Just because I am homosexual does not mean I want to be intimate with every woman I come across. What I hear is that because I have chosen a life style that means I am with a woman, the same woman for ten years, it means that I cannot sleep in a tent with two or three other cub scout moms. Because what? Because I might sleep different than a straight woman? When it comes to older scouts, I am obviously not the person to come to, I am at a cubscout level but I can say I think the notion of going to one man tents for scouts is obsurd. Just because a boy is gay does not mean he will hurt, suggest or act towards another scout. Even if the scout were placed in a tent with a child he might have a "crush on", don't scouts sleep three or four to a tent? There is nothing more wrong with this idea than letting all straight kids sleep in tents where they probably use profane language, share obscene jokes, and act like crude, rude, teenagers. Don't let them fool you, they might be boy scouts but they are still teenagers and teenagers will behave as such. Can't we just let them be scouts? Can't we just let the leaders lead? I disagree with the statments in another post about it being a local allowance that you could say no blacks, no jews or no this that or the other. It would not fly, if you say no blacks, no jews or what not your organization will be ended. This is not the dark ages, we don't operate like that and if you do, shame on you. Scouting is supposed to be fun, we are supposed to invite all! We are here to preserve nature and praise God for the beautiful land he has given us. I am not saying people have to like gay people or accept their life style, heaven knows I have run into my share of people who do not agree with me, but to all of them I say "peace, I am not going to try to instill my lifestyle on you, if we don't have this in common, do you like baseball?" To answer the question asked that led me to this rant, the only thing we would have to change if we DID NOT allow gays in is this, the Cub Scout Promise. "I promise to do my best, to do my duty, to God and my country, to help other people (except Gays) and to obey the law of the pack (this being to exclude those that are gay, because they are different in only one way and apparently that makes them devoid of feelings and our acceptance)"