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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]People obviously have strong feelings.

My son has done scouts for about 7 years now and it has been positive for him (he has SN so I don’t say that lightly).

As a practical matter, I do think he is safer at BS events than most other events.  I know the parents well and there are significant safety protections. He’s definitely more at risk at things like soccer camp, karate class, etc.  if there’s risk, it probably comes from the other boys as there is a strong ethos of letting the older boys  run things for younger boys and they have a lot of independence.  We talk to our kids about pressure, inappropriate touching, etc.  I think the risk exists everywhere.

The dues are pretty high because something like half of it goes to the settlement fund for past victims.   I’m okay with that.  They’ve also sold off a lot of property.

On the discrimination thing…boy scout troops are chartered by community groups (totally different structure than GS).  Official BS policy is that the troops have to follow both BSA rules and the Chartering institution’s rules.  In practice, [b]I think there are extremely few chartering groups that require discrimination against gay scouts or leaders at this point.[/b]  The LDS church all left BSA when it changed its policies, as did most of the evangelical churches—that is actually the biggest reason why BSA is struggling financially now (and certainly makes it harder to pay the victim settlement).  Our troop is sponsored by a Catholic Church and has plenty of gay scouts—there is no issue with that.  The church’s sponsorship is largely unnoticeable except that the pastor will come to the advancement ceremony and generally say a short blessing.  And parent volunteers are required to take the extensive Catholic Church child protection course in addition to the BSA one.

Every parent has to make their own choice, of course, and life is full of compromises and institutions that have a lot of historical baggage.  It has worked for us and we have not found it to be cultish.  But I would definitely be involved and a give so you know the other parents and the vibe of the troop/pack.  [/quote]

So there's an acceptable level of discrimination and exclusion for you then. Its ok because its just a little bit. What if there were just a few places that didn't allow Scouts of color or Jewish Scouts. Would that be ok too because well YOUR kid gets so much from it. [/quote]

If it’s chartered by a church I do not view it as wildly unreasonable that it comply with that church’s preaching. The available alternative - joining a different troop - is widely accessible [/quote]

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