I joined Cub Scouts when I was 8. I still remember the den meetings, the Pinewood Derbies, camping with my Dad. I remember, too, having to make a choice between scouting and organized sports. I chose scouting.
When I was 11, I eagerly joined up with the local troop. Although I never achieved Eagle, I stayed with the program until I was 16.
It was through Scouts that I had many great adventures. My Order of the Arrow ordeal. Weeks spent at summer camp -- a place I eventually learned to love. Polar bear and weekends at Camp McKinley.
When my son was , I promised myself that he, too, would get the chance to experience the joys of Scouting. As he grew older, I followed the news about the BSA's fight to exclude gays with some interest.
It disturbed me that the organization was taking such an exclusionary stance; their position didn't mesh with what I thought Scouting stood for. But I held out hope that the Supreme Court would decide in a way that would cause
the BSA National organization to re-evaluate their stance.
When the Supreme Court handed down its decision, I was dismayed. How could I reconcile the fact that my family was now supporting an organization that had the force of law behind its decision to discriminate against a class of people. We have always taught our children that these people are to be loved and accepted as any other person. I could no longer support an organization that labeled them as "immoral" or not to be trusted simply because of who they were.
It's my hope that someday BSA will see the error of its ways; I don't hold out a lot of hope for that, as it seems the National organization is in the thrall of a group of narrow-minded, controlling and fear-laden people.
But there is always hope, or maybe not. How can an organization discriminate against people especially little boys?
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