Support NeoGAF

[Geist-]

This is great and unexpected. Although to be honest I think they should open it up to girls who are simply more interested in the things Boy Scouts do. Although I guess that would mean changing the name.

 

[Hollycat]

Yaaay

 

[Lys Skygge]

This is great and unexpected. Although to be honest I think they should open it up to girls who are simply more interested in the things Boy Scouts do. Although I guess that would mean changing the name.

I agree. They could just change their name to The American Scouts.

 

[PhoenixSFT]

I'm proud of the organization I used to work for. Scouting is a great program, I hope to enroll my future kids in the Scouts some day.

 

[The Real Abed]

Conservative families boycotting the Boy Scouts in 3...2...1...

Good.

Though I don't want to think of the lies they'll tell their sons when they tell them they can no longer go.

 

[A Link to the Past]

Good. Funny that it happened now of all times, though.

 

[Button]

Do girl scouts accept trans people too? Why not just have scouts?

This is a fantastic thing anyway!

 

[WiiredShawn]

Again?

I expect it to work out about as well as boycotting Starbucks. Again.

They'd care way more if this was about the Girl Scouts.

Right? Boys can't spread the gay through their "cookies," at least.

Good.

Though I don't want to think of the lies they'll tell their sons when they tell them they can no longer go.

"Oh, no, Johnny, you don't want to join the Boy Scouts. They pin those badges directly to your flesh as you're forced to watch Legally Blonde. Terrible organization."

 

[Appleman]

Wait... girls can't join Scouts in America?

In Canada we definitely had girls who preferred Scouts to Guides and it was no big deal

 

[B_Spooky13]

Through all the darkness thats going on right now, it's amazing to see some light of progress still shining through

 

[QuantumSquid]

for real though where my boy scouts bacon at

the girl scouts get all the attention with their insanely good cookies, we need to give the boy scouts something worthwhile to fight back with

 

[UltraMagnanimous]

I was in the Irish Scouts in the early 90s and we allowed girls and boys to join.

The Scouts should be co-ed, end of.

 

[burn this down]

Another Eagle Scout here. Unbelievably happy. Scouts gave me some of the most formative experiences of my youth and helped foster skills and hobbies that have stuck with me. Great to see them be more inclusive.

 

[Vengal]

Good stuff.

Still need to let Atheists in, but I'll take this for now.

Do they not let Atheists in? I don't remember religion ever coming up like ever when I was a scout and I made it to Life before washing out. I feel like that might be one of those the organization says this but each troop can handle its owns business.


EDIT
Isn't it abit strange though that they'll let anyone who openly identifies as a boy in but if you happen to have a daughter or son that identifies as a girl who wants to do the boyscout camping stuff they're denied? I get this is a baby steps thing but from hearing my wife's experiences with girl scouts vs what i learned in boy scouts I honestly would have preferred an option for my daughter to do more boy scout stuff.

 

[RedHill]

Do they not let Atheists in? I don't remember religion ever coming up like ever when I was a scout and I made it to Life before washing out. I feel like that might be one of those the organization says this but each troop can handle its owns business.

I remember having to complete a specific task about religion

 

[Nydius]

I'd celebrate but I saw their National Council roadmap for 2015-2017 and I see this as more lipservice. What you don't see behind the scenes is how they're entrenching "Duty to God" even deeper into the program, starting all the way at the Cub Scout level. They're now requiring "Duty to God" religious activities for promotion through the Cub ranks and added a de facto reverence test to the Scoutmaster Conferences and Boards of Review for BSA ranks (e: essentially, if the scoutmaster or assistant scoutmaster or board of review doesn't feel the scout has been reverent enough, they can decline the promotion).

It's a far cry from the BSA where I earned my Eagle Scout in the early 1990's, before all of this shit hit the fan. I credit my time in the BSA for a lot of my progressive thinking because I had progressive scout leaders, a diverse troop of various military brats from all over the country with a multitude of different faiths (including one openly atheist scout), we weren't constantly pushed into an agenda, and units were extremely distant from the edicts coming from Texas. I was hoping that I could work for change by staying involved, acting as a counter balance and a different point of view for the scouts in our unit but I finally called it quits shortly after that roadmap was disseminated to councils and units.

It's become apparent that the BSA is saying one thing publicly while doubling down on even more theologically conservative views internally, and they're now taking a much stronger stance to ensure compliance at the Council (and subsequently unit) levels.

Edit: To illustrate what I mean about entrenching religion deeper into the program, here's just the Tiger Cub requirements....
... from June 2001 to May 2015 - note that there's only a passing mention of faith.
... from June 2015 to December 2016 - note that Duty to God now has its own section.
The present revision maintains the same requirement as December 2016.

Almost all of the Cub Scout ranks underwent the same transformation. I could make the same comparison for Wolf, Bear, and WEBELOS ranks. Why I find this relevant is because, essentially, while they may take homosexual and transgender scouts - or at least claim they will - they will be knowingly putting them into a theologically driven program that will almost certainly try to tell them they're wrong, or less human, or even tell them nonsense like "pray away the gay'.