National looking at letting homosexuals in the BSA

[AZMike]

I can agree with your sentiment, skeptic. I don't see anyone on the right trying to use the BSA as a political battleground. This issue is being forced onto the BSA. I for one don't want to see any sort of lifestyle witch hunt. Keep it to yourself and we will all be fine. This is just a very fine line, when special interest groups are pushing the issue so hard.

 

A "don't ask, don't tell" policy is not good enough for the gay rights community. Any I cannot tollerate the normalization of alternatice lifestyles being promoted in my scout troop. So this just sounds like we might just be at an impass.

 

Look at how many have left the Girl Scout program. Accept for cookie sales, they have very little visability. (not trying to offend and GSUSA folks). My sister has been a GS volunteer for over 20 years and have tons of respect for her.

Packsaddle, you asked if anyone could quote the written BSA policies against homosexuals at the time, as you couldn't find them, and I did so. Just trying to help you out by responding to your request.

 

I'm not surprised that there were not "open" documents discussing homosexuality in BSA in the 1960s and 1970s, as it was generally not discussed in polite society at the time. We're all prone to a little historical revisionism, but why would an organization that wished to promote itself as a wholesome organization discuss homosexuality in publications that could be read by kids? It was considered by most people in America to be, to use a scientific term, "icky." This was an era that, rightly or wrongly, associated homosexuality with a swishy effeminacy and moral degeneracy, as demonstrated by the depiction of homosexuals in movies, TV, and plays. I would imagine that a quick Google search on public attitudes or depictions of homosexuality in popular culture in the 1960s and 1970s would give you literally hundreds of examples. Homosexuals were depicted as swishy objects of ridicule (see: Pretty much every 1970s sitcom) and self-loathing (see: The Boys in the Band) at best, and often as far worse (see: Deliverance). (This is not to say that people with a same-sex attraction should be treated this way, but that was what the times were like.) In the sciences, homosexuality was considered a treatable behavioral disorder until the APA changed their position on what the "science" was. In most states, homosexual acts (even between consenting adults) were felonies, a homosexual orientation would bar you from most teaching positions, and the military would ban you from enlistment and considered homosexuality grounds for a dishonorable discharge or even imprisonment.

 

Frankly, the BSA probably did not feel any more need to have an "open" policy against homosexuality than it did against bestiality, rape, polygamy, shoe fetishism, or incest, which would have been considered equivalent behavior by most Americans at time time in history, and also subjects that should not be discussed in family-oriented documents I'm not trying to be cruel here, but younger people posting on this thread, or those of us with fading memories, appear to be looking for an "open" policy that would have no reason to exist, given the tenor of the times. It is almost the equivalent of looking for an "open" policy against misuse of the Internet in the 1970s.

 

Why would you, or anyone else, think that the BSA would NOT reflect American attitudes at that era in its view of homosexuality?

[packsaddle]

I can agree with your sentiment, skeptic. I don't see anyone on the right trying to use the BSA as a political battleground. This issue is being forced onto the BSA. I for one don't want to see any sort of lifestyle witch hunt. Keep it to yourself and we will all be fine. This is just a very fine line, when special interest groups are pushing the issue so hard.

 

A "don't ask, don't tell" policy is not good enough for the gay rights community. Any I cannot tollerate the normalization of alternatice lifestyles being promoted in my scout troop. So this just sounds like we might just be at an impass.

 

Look at how many have left the Girl Scout program. Accept for cookie sales, they have very little visability. (not trying to offend and GSUSA folks). My sister has been a GS volunteer for over 20 years and have tons of respect for her.

"Why would you, or anyone else, think that the BSA would NOT reflect American attitudes at that era in its view of homosexuality?"

Please inform me as to where I thought otherwise.

If an application for membership does not state all of the qualifications, then how can an applicant know what those qualifications are?