Boy Scouts Voting To Allow Underage Gay Members

Paralyzed by fear of alienating its conservative Christian members and paralyzed by a fear of continuing to piss off everyone else, the Boy Scouts of America has long refused to address its ban on homosexuality, but with the angry voices getting even louder, the organization has finally decided to take a stand. Kind of.

According to ABC News, the Boy Scouts of America has sent out a proposal to its roughly 1400 voting members asking them to remove the ban on underage homosexual scouts. If it passes, all children who want to be part of the organization, regardless of sexual orientation, will be admitted. All adults wanting to be scout leaders, however, still need to be heterosexual.

The measure comes on the heels of an exhaustive feedback campaign Scout leadership apparently engaged in with its members. After asking a large variety of questions on the pros and cons of keeping things the same, admitting all homosexuals or admitting underage homosexuals, the powers that be apparently decided this was the right course.

I get where the Boy Scouts are going with this, but based on the nature of the opinion, it seems like this will only piss off those on both sides of the aisle. Accepting underage scouts but then kicking them out after 18 sends a pretty bizarre message, and condoning homosexuality, even in teenagers, obviously won’t sit well with the far Right Wing.

Crusades for civil rights are always two steps forward, one step backwards.

We’ll keep you updated once the results of this vote come in.

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Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.