The Laughing Wolf

An Interesting Article On The Boy Scouts

CJ, down in the comments, posted a link to this article on scouting. There is much in there with which I agree, some with which I disagree, and other upon which I will have to think awhile. That means it is an article well worth reading. Take a few moments and do so, and thanks to CJ for the post.

LW

Boy Scouts Face Challenge From Within

Also on Fox is a story about one of the nation's larger Scout Councils, which has just elected to go with a non-discrimination policy. A Council in or near Boston has previously adopted a don't ask/don't tell policy.

As I wrote recently, I don't agree with the national policy for a lot of reasons. I would much rather have an openly gay leader than a closet paedophile or mentally abusive person. For those of you who don't know it, paedophiles are rarely openly gay, and in fact the majority of those caught do a great deal to project a heterosexual, "normal" image. The odds of an openly gay person being a paedophile are remote. Don't believe me? Look it up as there are tons of citations and verifiable data out there, just as there is a lot of interesting data on rabid homophobes.

I had my run-in with a paedophile, and it took some time to get the difference between such and a person who is gay clear in my own mind. The person who tried something with me was not gay, just a predator. For those who argue that kids should not have guns, I will note that when this creature tried something, I got away, put my deer rifle and ammo out in plain site, and not only did they leave in a hell of a hurry, they never tried anything with me again.

It took years before I could or would talk about what happened with my parents. Less because I was scared they would not understand, but more because I was afraid they would hunt down and kill the person. To be blunt, that was mine to do if I so chose. It took years to deal with all the ramifications, from dealing with those who were friends to this thing, and did not know him for what he was, to dealing with the sexual implications in my own life. Not fun. Did it though, have the t-shirt, and have moved on. My own experiences, however, have shaped a LOT of my thought on this debate.

Let me also make clear that the assault/attempted assault on me did not happen as a result of Scouting. We had someone I would classify as mentally abusive to deal with, but no paedophiles while I was in the troop to the best of my knowledge. There were a couple of patrols in our troop, and one unofficial "patrol" that made short work of incompetents, overly-authoritative idiots, and other dolts: what would have been done to a "caught" paedophile does not bear thinking on. The creature in this case was a good friend of a friend of the family.

The Boy Scouts of America needs to deal with this issue in a realistic fashion. Simply being gay does not preclude moral straightness: judge each individual and each situation on its own merits. Take this challenge and turn it into an advantage, an opportunity for growth, to prevent further damage to the organization, and more importantly, to the children involved.

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