The Boy Scouts of America [BSA] has announced that it will review a resolution that would allow individual units to accept gay men and women as adult leaders, but a spokesman warns that there should be no expectation that the BSA ban on gay leaders will in fact be lifted any time soon.
Let me get this queer: they want to sound like they're doing the right thing,but they will retain the right to remain bigoted.
according to BSA spokesman Deron Smith, the non-binding, we'll look into it, but we promise nothing, resolution was submitted by a Scout leader last April and presented just last week at the BSA national meeting in Orlando.
And it will be referred to a subcommittee, which will then make a recommendation to the national executive board, though the national board may or may not follow the recommendations.
Got that?
And, to add insult to injury, this process is expected to take up to one year. Smith says there are no plans at this time to change the policy.
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| Jennifer Tyrrell |
In protest to the BSA ousting of lesbian mother, Jennifer Tyrrell, as a den mother, a petition with over 275,000 names was presented to the BSA.
Among those who presented the BSA with the petition asking that they change their homophobic policies, was Eagle Scout Zach Wahls, an Iowa college student who was raised by lesbian mothers, and has spoken out often, and eloquently, about LGBT rights.
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| Zach Wahls |
Wahls, and his allies, plan a campaign to mobilize opposition to the gay-exclusion policy from within Scout ranks, with the goal of building pressure for the resolution to be approved. Zach says, "Up to the day they end this policy, they'll be saying they have no plans to do so. But there's no question it's costing the Boy Scouts in terms of membership and public support."
Hopefully, with the help of our LGBT allies, like Wahls, the BSA won't wait a year to make a decision, and they won't continue to practice bigotry and intolerance and homophobia in the name of character-building.
Itty, bitty, very tiny baby steps.
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