Yesterday was quite the day for Boy Scouts and their proposed discussion about the organization’s ?no gays allowed? policy. Over the weekend,?Rick Perry spoke to hundreds of Texas Boy Scouts?and encouraged Boy Scout leadership to stick to their guns because the collapse of society, pregnant teens, and ?wayward? youth are all caused by not following the Boy Scout handbook. Then, late yesterday afternoon,?a group of Scouts and leaders delivered 1.4 million signatures?to the Irving, Texas based Boy Scouts headquarters to protest in protest of the organization’s innate discrimination.
Here’s the video:
Why is this debate about allowing gay Boy Scouts and leaders into the organization receiving increased focus this week? Because the Boy Scouts national executive board is meeting to?address and put to a vote a change in their anti-gay policy. As can be expected, all of the anti-gay kooks are chiming in. And guess who crawled out from under a rock to give his two cents? Well, Rick Santorum, the world’s favorite homophobe.
During the 2011 GOP primaries, the former Republican presidential candidate and Pennsylvania senator said that gays were waging a ?Jihad? against him and has pretty much made ?gay bad gay bad? the?only song in his?repertoire. It therefore stands to reason that he’s all over the Boy Scout LGBT issue, and he’s making psychic predictions via an op-ed on?World Net Daily?(WND).
He brought up the ?war on boys? and said that he’s??saddened, but not surprised,??because the sons of the men at the ?top of the food chain? have been sheltered from the harmful effect of society.
?Board members James Turley, CEO of Ernst & Young, and Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T, are advocating for gay scoutmasters and scouts.?They are joined by two big funders, UPS and Merck, that have signaled change or money will disappear.?
He has taken his special brand of lunacy a step further this time, however.
?Scouting may not survive this transformation of American society, but for the sake of the average boy in America, I hope the board of the Scouts doesn’t have its fingerprints on the murder weapon.?
Yes, you read that correctly. The ?murder weapon.? If the Boy Scouts executive board votes to change the anti-gay policy, does that therefore make all of the board members ?murderers??
Santorum claims that ever since a 2000 Supreme Court ruling allowed Boy Scouts to set their own rules the organization has been in the ?cross-hairs? of attorneys, ?anti-scouting? public officials, and liberal Christians.
?All of these attacks have been cheered by a mainstream media that see an opportunity to advance a liberal cause while vilifying a theistic-based organization standing by its outdated principles of developing boys into men.?
He has a concern that??every troop that doesn’t want a homosexual or atheist scoutmaster will be sued??and that all of the good Christian troops and leaders will??simply leave and pursue alternative ways to continue to invest in the development of their young men’s character, leaving the Scouts hollowed out at its core.?
He implored (yes, he used that word) executives at Merck and UPS, who are major funding sources and are pulling their support from the organization, to ?read the Boy Scout Law? because it teaches traits that the businesses like to see in their employees ???trustworthy, loyal, courteous, thrifty, obedient, clean and reverent.? According to Santorum, the Boy Scouts haven’t kept up with what is ?cool or trending,? so people with an ?intolerant liberal mind? will force them to conform. Can you say ?intolerant? and ?liberal? in the same sentence?
?Scouting prepares boys and teenagers to be virtuous men in a world that desperately needs men who are brave enough to stand up for those principles, to live by the moral code of the Scout Oath and Law and hold themselves to that standard ? whether at the schoolyard or in the boardroom.?
Santorum quoted from the Boy Scout manual:
?A Scout can face danger although he is afraid. He has the courage to stand for what he thinks is right even if others laugh at him or threaten him.?
Very few Scouts have ever faced the danger and fear that young gay boys have faced every day of their lives. Very few Scouts have endured the laughter, bullying, and threats to which young gay boys have been subjected.?If Rick Santorum is worried about ?bravery,? he should be pleased to have?these brave young men?join the ranks of the Boy Scouts.
No one has the Boy Scouts in their ?cross-hairs,? Santorum. We simply believe that ALL boys can benefit from being ?nurtured into men,? not just straight boys. We believe that companies that support Boy Scouts have a right to pull their funding if they are opposed to discrimination. We believe that a ?loving gay father should not be deprived of the opportunity?to actively participate in his son’s nurturing. And most certainly, we believe that amazing young men who grow up in Boy Scouts and then come out as gay in their late teen years should not be disqualified from receiving the?Eagle Scout honor that they have earned.
Here’s the video from?Anderson Cooper’s CNN interview with Ryan Anderson, the gay teen who was denied Eagle Scout rank:
