If I can ever find that medal...

The breadth and depth of ignorance in this country is shocking.

Reading the comments on an opinion piece about a Wiccan Eagle Scout who returned his medal in protest of the anti-gay policies of the BSA was revealing, to say the least. Apparently, when he decided to be Wiccan, he violated his Oath as a Scout (did any of you know that? I doubt the Wiccan I served with on camp staff knew that).

Also, there are apparently no gay youth who wish to be in the BSA, only adults who will either convert children through association or predatory pedophiles who will rape them just like priests.

Odd, when I was on that camp staff, I could have sworn that 1/4 of the staff members were gay (some under 18, some over) and that 90% of those gay men were Eagle Scouts. In fact, I felt that I was in the minority as a straight Eagle. If Scouting is Camping, as was so frequently stated, the staff that was standing up as the examples of what it was to be Boy Scouts was full of people who, apparently, have no right to be Boy Scouts.

The BSA has a responsibility to uphold the principles that it teaches. It also has a responsibility to protect children from abuse, both physical and emotional, at the hands of adults, other children, and the institution itself. I know that I'm asking a lot of a group of people who have never been in the organization or cared about it until the Gay Agenda was attacking it when I expect them to understand that the BSA is welcoming of all religions (their mistreatment of atheists is another issue) and when I expect them to also understand that gay children need positive role models in organizations like the BSA so that they will learn to value their own lives in a society that tells them to devalue themselves and I'm really asking a lot of them when I expect them to understand that gay people are just that: people.

I intend to return my medal to the BSA. I have no desire to maintain any affiliation with an organization that is so desperate to maintain the approval of the LDS church that it will turn its back on the kindness, loyalty, friendliness, courtesy, bravery, and moral integrity enshrined in its Oath and Law. Yes, I am interpreting all of those things as I believe they should be interpreted, but anyone who believes that it is kind, loyal, friendly, courteous, brave, or morally straight to tell a ten-year-old that he is wrong for the feelings that his body is producing in him can take that opinion and fuck right off.