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Do Boy Scouts and Liberals Mix?
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Anonymous
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While I'm familiar with Girl Scouts, I have no experience with Boy Scouts. My 5-year-old has been invited to join (by family friends/acquaintances) and I'm a little wary based on what I know and read...lesbian families not welcome to fully participate , their unwillingness to accept atheists or even agnostics etc.
To other liberal-minded parents: Do you have boys in scouts -- what's it like? If you don't have boys or kids old enough, would you decline to participate in it? I'm interested in hearing what others think with regard to this. |
Anonymous
| I will not be participating. I'm agnostic and fully supportive of gay people, and find the Boy Scouts to be incompatible with those two things. |
Anonymous
This |
Anonymous
| I'm a straight Christian. There is no way I am going to let my children participate in an organization that discriminates against atheists and LGBT. |
Anonymous
| I would not. |
Anonymous
| Agree with the other posters, I do not support the boys scouts. There are gay-friendly and non-Christian friendly organizations that your child can join. |
Anonymous
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It's a great organization in so many ways but I just can't imagine how I would one day explain to my DS why I let him participate in an organization that discriminates against gays and lesbians. This is the opposite of how I'm trying to teach him to live. So no, we don't participate in Boy Scouts.
But FYI, I'm not necessarily what you'd call "liberal" from a political standpoint. Liberals don't have the market cornered on tolerance. |
Anonymous
Same here. |
Anonymous
It's OK. The Internets are full of "libertarians" that always vote Republican. |
Anonymous
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Unitarian here. You don't get much more liberal than the folks in my congregation. Nonetheless at a recent meeting a few of the parents of boys mentioned that they DO allow their children to participate in Boy Scouts. They feel the boys gain a social experience that is important and valuable to them. That the world is full of intolerant people and you have to learn how to deal with them.
I don't agree but I did hear this sentiment expressed. I have girls so not an issue for me. But I'd like to think I wouldn't support the Boy Scouts. I guess if enough liberals joined the Boy Scouts we could change it from the inside! I've always wondered that about the NRA..... what if all the anti-gun folks took it over as members and staff? 
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Anonymous
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Another reason I'd never let DS join the Boy Scouts...
youthtoday.org/view_article.cfm?article_id=3878 |
Anonymous
| Lesbian family here - no, our kids won't be joining. It is sad, because there is a very active troop at their school - with lots of their friends - but will not be a part of it. We are looking into Scouting for All or 4H. |
Anonymous
Sorry, let's make it a real link. http://www.youthtoday.org/view_article.cfm?article_id=3878 |
Anonymous
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Another Unitarian here.
We do not participate, due to discrimination against LGBT people and also anti-athiest stance. |
Anonymous
| We don't participate either in part because of their discrimination, but FWIW I have heard that because troops are at least somewhat neighborhood-based you can end up with a troop where pretty much none of the families subscribe to those beliefs of the boy scouts and the issue is never really presented (and families have told me that they think the opportunities offered by the boy scout outweigh the ideological positions of boy scout HQ). |