by Lucy Hurlbut ’14

The Boy Scouts of America has decided to put off the decision on lifting the gay ban that has created great controversy inside and outside the Boy Scout community. If the ban was lifted, local scouting units would be allowed to make their own decisions on whether to admit gays into the organization. This decision was to be made at the executive board meeting, February 6 but has been pushed back to the organization’s national meeting in May.

Seventy percent of the Boy Scouts’ support comes from Mormon, Catholic, and other Christian churches and organizations, and lifting the ban could result in some of them withdrawing their support. However, having the decision made locally allows local religious organizations to keep the ban on gays if they want to or open it up to gays, because it is no longer a national decision.

The Boy Scouts would still have control over its policies; it would just be decentralized. It would be fairer, because it allows the individual branches of the Boy Scouts to choose what they want to do instead of forcing every local group to turn gay people away.

The Boy Scout organization does have legal rights to make its own decisions as it is a private organization, however with the changing America, the organization must change if it wants to continue to be looked upon highly and succeed. As Herndon Graddick the president of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation points out, “We’re living in a culture where hurting young gay people because of who they [are] is unpopular and discriminatory.” Obama acknowledges that “The Scouts are a great institution that are promoting young people … [to] opportunities and leadership” but also makes a point of saying that “nobody should be barred for that.”

The organization’s mission is to “prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes.” The moral choice would be to respect gays, because being gay is not a choice. This is one’s sexual orientation and it is who that person is. The person will still be a homosexual regardless of whether he is kicked out of the organization.

It is time that the Boy Scouts accepts every person as individuals who are capable of benefitting from the group no matter what their sexual orientation is.