About those anti-aviatoin newsgroups

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...
The BSA does not throw out kids who are homosexuals. The policy applies to
adult leaders only.

That's just false, CJ. The BSA does not have a policy of waiting until a
boy scout reaches majority age before expelling him for being openly gay.
Can you cite any statement of Scout policy (or any other evidence) to
support your claim?

In Dale v. BSA, the Scouts argued that the exclusion of gay members is
fundamental to their organizational purpose. In support of that argument,
the BSA took the position that their requirement of being "morally straight"
is inherently incompatible with being openly gay (or atheist). The
requirement to be "morally straight" applies to all Scouts, not just adult
leaders; so if "moral straightness" is construed to preclude being openly
gay, then gay children too are thereby deemed unfit for Scouting.

In an earlier thread here, at least one adult Scout leader acknowledged that
he would not refrain, merely because a scout is still a child, from
expelling that scout for being openly gay. He did say that his personal
inclination would be to try to find loopholes in the policy so as to avoid
or delay the child's expulsion. But one could look for loopholes with
regard to adult leaders, too, if one were personally so inclined--that
doesn't change what the policy is.

Keep in mind, too, that the BSA insists that its exclusion of people who are
openly gay is *required policy* for individual troops. It may be that many
troops covertly defy this policy, but those who do so openly are subject to
decertification. Just this month, a troop in Sebastopol, California lost
its BSA charter because the troop had an official nondiscrimination policy
with regard to sexual orientation and belief about religion.

Here is an anecdote ( http://www.inclusivescouting.net/bsa/cases/hill/ )
about Matt Hill, a 14-year-old scout in North Carolina expelled in December,
2000 for being gay after he helped found a gay-straight alliance at his high
school. "I have tried to join [another] unit at a pretty liberal minded
Presbyterian church but the leader for the troop said that because of the
BSA policy they couldn't do it. They did not want to lose their charter with
the BSA."

--Gary