Did you know that the Boy Scouts of America still discriminate against gay men? Not just gay men – they discriminate against atheists too, but that’s a discussion for another time. As far as I know, the Boy Scouts (as an organization, and through the leadership of various chapters) has always rejected gay Scouts and Scout leaders, openly banning them from the organization. But over the past decade, the Boy Scouts have dug in their heels more and more, refusing to change their policies, and some high profile politicians and celebrities have been highly critical of those policies. One celebrity in recent memory was Steven Spielberg, who resigned from the board of the BSoA in 2001. Now Carly Rae Jepsen has withdrawn from a scheduled performance at the 2013 National Scouting Jamboree in July after Change.org publicly pressured her to drop out:
Urged on by tens of thousands of petitioners, Carly Rae Jepsen has backed out as a headliner of a Boy Scouts of America concert this summer, saying the Scouts’ ban on gay members conflicts with her personal beliefs.
Jepsen, 27, was one of two headlining acts scheduled to play at the 2013 National Scouting Jamboree in West Virginia in July.
In a tweet Tuesday morning, the Canadian singer said she couldn’t participate in an event held by a group with an anti-gay agenda.
The other headlining act, the band Train, has not backed out – but has promised to cancel if the Scouts fail to overturn the ban at a scheduled vote on the matter in May.
Jepsen was apparently swayed by a petition at Change.org started by gay Eagle Scout Derek Nance that specifically urged her not to play the concert. Nance’s petition has garnered more than 60,000 signatures.
“I came out as gay because I realized the best way to help end this dangerous policy is to stand up, speak out and tell the organization I love to do the right thing,” Nance said in a statement.
“A Scout is brave, and I’m thrilled that Carly Rae and Train have joined me in standing up for what is right,” the statement continued. “I hope the Boy Scouts of America also choose to be brave this May.”
I think this is a good sign for gay rights in general, and I admire Carly Rae for choosing what was probably a difficult option. I mean, she was going to be screwed either way – if she chose to ignore the petition, she would have been raked over the coals by her gay fans and the gay community. Now that she’s withdrawn, she’ll be raked over the coals by conservative groups and her conservative, “family-friendly” fans. Still, I think it’s wonderful that a young woman with absolutely ZERO political edge is throwing down a specific gauntlet about treating people equally.
Incidentally, did you know that the Girl Scouts of America is super-friendly to the gay community? They actively educate their Girl Scouts about gay and lesbian role models and they’ve been active in anti-bullying campaigns of transgendered youth too. Girl Scouts ROCK!
Also: here’s that Carly Rae/Nine Inch Nail remix/splice or whatever. It’s actually kind of awesome.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Good for her.
I’d love to hear the parents explain to their kids, too. “Well Jr., Mummy and Daddy decided to put you into a bigoted organization and Miss Jepson didn’t like that…”
Yeah, no. No presents for bigot-harbourers.
+ 1
I am very Catholic and very gay friendly. Don’t mix Christianity with stupidity.
I like her a little bit more now.
You are one person … you are not the catholic church ….. it is not stupidity it is a valid belief that all religions hold … you either agree or you do not … I personally do not care who people go to bed with and have no interest in it … but i do not got to a muslim organization or country trying to change their practices.. I just stay away … and I NEVER call people’s believes crazy as I do not want it done to me
Good for her. I’m loving all these posts this morning about celebrities being fab. What a wonderful message if support to send to young, sexually confused Tweens.
Girl Scouts rock. Boy Scouts leadership needs to step into the 21st century and stop discriminating.
Good for her.
good! there is no place in our society for policy like that of the boys scouts.
Why did she bother to accept the invitation in the first place? Funny how it only ‘conflicted with her personal beliefs’ after people starting giving her a hard time for it..
She’s canadian, and Canadian scouting allows gays/girls/etc etc. So she clearly might not have known.
I first got involved in Cubs in 1990. By the time I hit Scouts in grade 5, half of our troop was female (including myself.) One of the older girls was a lesbian, and nobody seemed to care. I had no idea until the recent drama that things aren’t the same in the USA as they are here in Canada. What a shame – being involved in Cubs and Scouts was such a confidence-boosting thing for me.
+1
to be fair, i think the boy scouts in canada are separate and don’t have the same policy (i could be wrong, but that’s what i remember) so she may have legitimately been unaware when she accepted to play. in any case, her video for call me maybe has a pretty gay friendly message, so i don’t think this is just lip service.
I thought the same thing but to be fair to her, maybe she did not know about the Boy Scout stance until she was told.
Also, until recently, the BSA were publicly claiming to reconsider their bigoted stance, which I never believed would truly happen anyway since they didn’t just change their official policy. Then the extremist-Christian brigade got together to protest those awful gay children and the BSA claimed they couldn’t change anything yet due to membership protests.
Thank you, everyone. Susie Q’s question was the first thing that sprang into my mind. I appreciate you all shedding light on what may have happened.
This was good pr and a no brainer. She may feel that banning people because of their sexual orientation is wrong, but she made the decision best for her career.
The music business embraces gay equality. Saying she opposed it would hurt her career.
And I don’t think the boy scouts are sweating this loss.
This is totally a possibility. I mean, it sounds like she had to be pressured before backing out.
I found it hilarious that she calls herself an “artist”!
She’s an artist (who got incredibly lucky that a bunch of idiots started doing versions of her dumb song) alright.
I think it is great she did this..and I completely disagree with the scouts not letting gays in and I hope it changes soon.
I have to say that both my boys are cub scouts my husband is a leader and I am an atheist. Honestly being gay or believing in god never comes up. I think most packs don’t care, it is just the bigwigs who head the organization that need to get on board.
Thank you! I know 3 eagle scouts and a leader and they don’t care if a person is gay an atheist or not. It’s about doing their part in the community, meeting new people, developing friendships, and everything else that goes with the boy scouts ( I truly don’t know that much about the organization). oh and selling some popcorn!
I think Carly should have kept the date because she had already agreed to it. I don’t think it was good on her to cancel. Someone else said that she’d get heat either way (perform or not) maybe some of the heat could have been taken away if she released a statement of some sort saying that she’s supportive of the gay community, but she already has signed up for this concert and she doesn’t want to disappoint the BOYS of the boy scouts, not their parents or the big wigs who have an issue with the gay community.
Oh and I know that knowing 4 people associated with the boy scouts doesn’t generalize to the boy scouts as a whole. I was just pointing out that it most certainly is not every single one of them. I think it has to do a lot with what the parents believe and passing that down to their children and who is the leader of the group, not so much the organization itself.
Emma I’m married to an eagle scout and my brother in law is 1 too. They are statistically more likely to be well adjusted and contribute to society in a positive way.
It is always the higher ups that mess the good name of the boy scouts.
Yes, yes, yes!!
this is such wonderful news.
good for her, and for everyone who stands up to anti-gay organizations.
It is literally baffling that there are people who somehow believe that gay men are also all paedophiles?
I bet no parent cares about a lesbian woman being a teacher at school.
It is just abhorrent!
I once listened to someone roar on about how they would not mind if their kid had a lesbian teacher etc… but not “a bi teacher…they don’t know what they want–maybe they do want kids and just haven’t figured it out yet”.
I enjoyed telling them I was “a bi” and watching them squirm.
Never underestimate illogical bigotry.
Their kids have had both, and probably a beloved teacher. They just didn’t know they were gay or bi.
unfortunately, many women have lost their jobs as teachers after their sexual orientation was revealed to be something other than straight.
and one of the more recent boy scouts issues that I recall from last year was when a mother was ousted from her position as her son’s group leader when the organization discovered she was a lesbian.
I too wonder why she decided to do the show for the Boyscouts to begin with. Everyone already knew about their ‘policies’ already. Don’t get me wrong, that she dropped out was great, but still.
She may not have known. She’s Canadian, and the Boy Scouts of Canada (Scouts Canada) are inclusive. She probably figured Boy Scouts of America were the same, and wasn’t aware of their policies until the petition came up. What may seem like pressure may have just been that she received information that she didn’t have before.
Oh! I wasn’t aware of that. (I didn’t even realize Canada *had* ‘Boyscouts’ xD) It *would* make sense that she wouldn’t know about America’s ‘policies’. Almost makes me ashamed to be American sometimes, with all the stupid shit people do here. ¬_¬
Also, the BS have been in the news for months about “reconsidering” their position. Which was obviously just a ploy to buy some time.
Good on her for backing out. That brings lots more publicity to the cause than not signing on in the first place, I think.
I’m of two minds about this. (and please do keep in mind that I’m all about equality for everyone.)
My nephew just had his Court of Honor for his Eagle Scout. During dinner afterwards the topic of conversation turned to what was happening at the local level of scouting regarding letting gay men into the organization. My nephew, who is 15 (young for an Eagle Scout), promptly said he’d quit scouting if they let gays in. I was stunned. He was so proud of his achievement, his family was proud, and yet he’d throw it away in an instant because of a policy that, given where they live, would most likely never affect him? I pointed it this out to him, and he said he’d still quit, because homosexuality was wrong, the bible said it was wrong, his parents said it was wrong. He felt, as his parents had trained him to do, that such a move was an “attack on family values,” which he believed was a big part of scouting.
It’s completely right that Carly Rae can back out of performing for an organization whose policies she doesn’t agree with. That’s fine by me. What I am concerned with, however, that instead of inclusion into our pop culture world, where sheltered kids like my nephew, might be exposed to ideas that generally don’t get much play in their households because some celebrity gets pressured to exclude them. It drives them further from the mainstream, and if you don’t believe that they make choices on what to listen to, or what to read, etc., based on their political world view, you’re kidding yourself.
I understand how boycotts work, and I agree with them to a certain extent, but this is not a group of people who is going to change their minds about their policy because Carly Rae Jepsen or any other band won’t perform at the Jamboree. It might actually do more harm than good, in terms of actually getting people to accept the greater truth of equality for all.
“a policy that, given where they live, would most likely never affect him”
If you don’t think inequality in society affects you, your “values” are fairly meaningless.
And I would absolutely agree with that. Their values aren’t so much meaningless, however, but they are hypocritical to a huge degree.
I guess I’m more interested in how do you get people to accept quality as the truth, and I’m not sure boycotting anything is going to achieve that goal.
It’s a no-tolerance message, in my eyes. If the Aryan youth kicked up again, you wouldn’t join, no matter how many of their awesome little skill-based medals you could get for doing things you loved. Because they are, y’know, ugly people who banned (and worse) swaths of people based on arbitrry characteristics they labelled as wrong.
There’s just no such thing as “minor” bigotry. Congrats, Boy Scouts–you’re not Nazis. Still totally assholes, though.
And why would you WANT to associate yourself with assholes? For the honour of paying them for patches? Meh. To quote Troop Beverly Hills:”We don’t need no stinking patches.”
“a policy that, given where they live, would most likely never affect him”
You are aware that gay people are 10% of the population no matter where you live, right?
Discrimination is the prejudicial or distinguishing treatment of an individual based on their actual or perceived membership in a certain group or category is the same dearie..
I support the Constitution and that includes peoples right to choose to who to associate with or to not associate with- that’s why we have freedoms.
Who cares what a pop singer does or says? The day that directs my life or influences my choices is the day I jump off a bridge.
I’m glad I’m not a “joiner” -I’ve never seen the need to fit in or gain the acceptance of a group on a cheap pretense.
For people saying why did she sign up in the first place. Considering she’s semi new to the American music industry(she’s Canadian), she may not have known about the history of the boy scouts ban on gays. It’s possible her management/team set up the gig as an effort to get her more exposure. Once she was informed by her fans, she decided against performing. I don’t think it was the pressure, I think she honestly didn’t know. She’s been vocal in Canada against bullying and such, so I really think it would’ve been natural for her to say no, had she known the history. Long story short, kudos to her for doing the right thing.
This boycott has nothing to do with her beliefs and everything to do with publicity. The boyscouts have had these beliefs/policies since their inception, and long before Carlee was a known terrible singer. Everyone knows what they believe, its no secret. If she was truely concern about the Boyscouts standings, she never would have booked the concerts to begin with.
She’s Canadian. The boy scouts here are inclusive.
A lot of the discrimination that happens in the US is stuff that Canadians never imagined could happen. It never crosses their minds that it’s a possibility.
I know many Canadians who were shocked when Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed. They couldn’t even believe that it was a policy in the first place.
Nothing really to applaud as heroic. She was called out and would have looked stupid going forward. Being pro-gay in the pop world is really a must and at the usual popsinger’s age they are openminded anyway. But I like that she cancelled immediately, no wavering.
I love how times are changing. On reality shows like Jeff Lewis, that new shrink show, gay couples on the homebuying shows on HGTV, they show real life gay couples and it breaks down that fear wall of those brought up in a different era where it was hidden, taboo, to see they are just like any other couple.
But it makes me sad of all the gay bullying in schools still going Those bullies are a product of their parents teaching them homophobia, not inclusivity. It starts at home.
Thank you Carly Rae. We appreciate all the help the gay community can get.
Just want to add two things: first, Train dropped out of the concert before Carly Rae. And second it’s not just gay men. Lesbian moms can’t be scout leaders either.
Because of the stance conservative people take on homosexuality, I have trouble believing any of them are even remotely intelligent. They often believe that homosexuality is a choice when, in reality, it isn’t any more of a choice than heterosexuality. Therefore, if conservatives can’t even imagine spending their lives pretending to be gay, don’t ask gays to spend their lives pretending to be straight. Furthermore, whether or not gay marriage is legalized is none of their business. The only argument I’ve heard is that it’s not in the bible – that God only intended men and women to be together. Well, newsflash, where does your religion have any place in the government? …That’d make a better statement if there was a true separation of church and state, but as it is, they’ve been and probably always will be holding hands. Plus, it’s not like gay people are going to force straight people to marry them when it’s legalized (notice I said when, not if). It shouldn’t matter to anyone what makes someone happy as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. You can say it hurts the nuclear family, but how can love hurt family? We should be happy that two men can find love together or two women. If they adopt children, it’s even better! Those children need love. And if you think they’ll raise gay children, then you only need to refer to all of the children of gay parents. I’m sure the ratio of gay to straight children is similar to that of straight parents. Plus, straight parents raise gay children all the time. It clearly has nothing to do with how one is raised.
Finally, I believe wholeheartedly that gay marriage will be legal everywhere one day and that our children’s children will read about it in their history classes and be ashamed it was ever an issue.
Or even if they accept they were born gay, they say stay celibate or try to have a straight marriage because anything otherwise is a sin.
I love the people that say, I know gay people and have a gay friend, so I am open-minded. But no marriage and don’t shove your gayness down my throat in public, by holding hands or a kiss. Oh, openminded all right. What you are saying is you’re disgusting and hide any relationship behind closed doors. Only heterosexuals can walk down the street and hold hands or have their arms around each other.
Thank God for Neal Patrick Harris and Ellen Degeneres to show the world loving same-sex relationships not hidden.
I hate any type of PDA. Gay or straight.
*applauds* can’t understand why this is such a difficult concept for so many people!
Exactly! Gay rights isn’t about religion or values. It’s about civil rights. If you chose to deny a gay or lesbian person the same rights others have then you are not promoting your own religion or values, you are stepping on their civil rights.
I grew up in the South during segregation and soooooo many people used that old, tired bible verse about Noah’s son being cursed to perpetual slavery to promote white supremacy–and not just the KKK membership, but little old ladies who went to church every Sunday honestly believed that to be true.
Yes, yes, yes. My children already can’t believe this is an issue. Future generations will look back and shake their heads – and one of those future generations will have an openly gay President. Anyone remember how unthinkable the idea of a black President would have been even 10 years ago? I do. Things change quickly. The BSOA deserves to be condemned as strongly as people would (and should) condemn an openly racist or sexist organization. Religion is not an excuse for bigotry, nor should the inclination not to offend people’s religious prejudices be an excuse for doing nothing about bigotry.
Yeah..big *plus one* to everything you ladies are saying here.
An extra huge *plus one* to this: “That’d make a better statement if there was a true separation of church and state.”
That’s really the problem for me. Worship whatever God you want, believe that gay marriage is wrong if you want to, believe that a zygote’s life is more important than a woman’s life-you’re entitled to your opinion.
But when you start trying to essentially legislate your religion or your subjective definition of morality, well, that’s when I have a problem, a BIG problem with your beliefs. In other words, once your personal or religious beliefs infringe on the rights of myself and others, people are gonna have something to say about it. One thing I’ve learned, after wasting a lot of time trying to appeal to people’s sense of logic (and heart) is that some people simply have no desire to change their way of thinking-NONE.
So ultimately, keep your prejudices to yourself, be an upstanding citizen and respect the rights of others-and it’s all good in the ‘hood, just stop trying to deny other people the basic rights that they deserve as human beings.
Who cares if she dropped out because of how it affects her image?? Besides the fact that we don’t know for certain that she was motived by the fear of bad PR–she’s still drawing attention to the archaic and dated social stance of the Boy Scout Organization. The *why* of it doesn’t detract from the powerful statement made by her actions IMO.
I think it’s sad that everyone is being force to support the whole gay stuff not everyone believes it’s right that doesnt make you a bad person, I think it’s sad we live in such an immoral world and it’s getting worse.
As a straight mom of three, I fully support equality. Being gay is not immoral, being gay will not bring down civilization. It has to do with equality. No one should be treated less then another. An organization has a right to have their rules. But as a mom of two boys, i have the right to pick out what activities they can join. I will never support anything that blatantly discriminates against anyone. And being gay is nothing to be ashamed about.
Sigh. Ellen Degeneres and Portia are immoral. Wow. I see what you are teaching your kids. Believe what you want, but you have been surrounded by wonderful, upstanding citizens in your community your whole life: teachers, police officers, lawyers, judges, doctors, accountants on and on. They had to stay closeted because of minds like yours, and mine when I was younger, making them feel immoral. What a sad way to look at things, calling them immoral people.
A wonderful attorney in my town, who was married twice hiding his homosexuality, finally came out in his 40s and married his partner. He has contributed so much to our community in so many ways on city councils, volunteerism. His religious parents gave a beautiful speech at his wedding on how proud they were of him and realized how the way they were raised led to ignorant bigotry until it was someone in their family who they knew was an amazing person and had to hide his homosexuality and live in emotional pain. By the way, his children are all straight and so proud of their father.
Kay, I bet you still take the bus where the colored people are in the back, but that doesn’t make you a bad person does it? Unbelievable. You obviously needed some attention this morning, hence your ignorant comment.
Yes I’m ignorant and desperate for attention because I have a different views/belief than you.
You can have different views. But when it comes to hurtful, bigotry and intolerance views, expect a reaction. If someone intentionally causes harm to another, that’s when we have to stand up. Homophobia is one of the worse forms of bullying.
I get what you are saying. If I don’t agree with homosexuality that doesn’t make me a bad person. People feel you have to agree with everything now.
You don’t have to agree with racial equality, either.
That’s why there need to be laws to protect it.
I’m sure you’re not a “bad” person. It’s not that you have to agree with it or like it, but if you (and others who share your beliefs) would just accept that they exist and stop being hateful of them, the world would be a better place.
Nobody’s asking you to love it or support homosexuality, but why do they have to be excluded? Why do you have to hate them and want them to change?
Live and let live, at the very least, it’s not your business or the Scouts’ who has sex with whom.
She doesn’t have to like it at all, but sooner or later the federal law will insist that she stop violating the civil rights of the lesbian and gay communities.
@Thiajoka:
Also true. I suspect that if she does not change her attitude she will find the world to be a very uncomfortable place very soon.
Kay, you don’t have to like it but in the civilized, tolerant world I hope we are moving towards you do have to stop suggesting it is “immoral” and you do have to abide by laws preventing unjustifiable discrimination (which should be put in place to deal with orgs like the BSOA).
Well said. Less huffy than I can get. LOL.
Having a different opinion is not the equivalent of bullying and does not violate the law. IF you force everyone to be pro-gay, you violate the beliefs of your fellow citizens who are Muslim, Jews, Christians, Mormons, etc. Not eveyone out here is an atheist.
i agree with you somewhat.
Like what with all these celebs coming and saying the ‘suuport gay rights’? Obama, Jepsen, Theron, Brangelina?
Do they seriosuly belive in it or are they saying this for PR and promotion?
The more people who do things like this, the better. I know that they’re free to discriminate based on the laws in place now, but the more people who throw shade on them the more likely they are to change their policies. This is how change happens, like it or not, with the Carly Raes and the Francos.
Yep. The BSA don’t have to include gay people. Okay. But the rest of the world doen’t have to include the Boy Scouts. See how that works, apoplogists?
I was raised religious on both sides of my family. My mom’s father is a pastor & her 2 (younger) sisters are now married to pastors. They lived in Georgia/Alabama/All over the country, So she grew up under pretty strict rules & beliefs about right & wrong.
Mom has never been that active about church since she got married (NOT to a pastor), only making us go on holidays. Finally, when I turned 13, I started asking the ‘tough questions’ regarding things I didn’t agree with in the Bible.. That she honestly didn’t have answers for. Being ‘Gay’ being a ‘sin’ was one of them.
I’ve seen people above saying that not agreeing w/homosexuality doesn’t make them ‘bad people’. That may be true, but it’s a slippery slope. & I know I could never back up or be a fan of someone who *did not* support gay rights.
I don’t know if she’s in a position to be turning down work. Also everybody knows about the boy scout policy, I think people forget how old this woman is because she dresses like a thirteen year old
Good for her. I support equality and I don’t agree with the BSA leadership. They fall under the “thou doth protest too much” category.
Seems like the entire Hollywood culture is preoccupied with gay/lesbian/bi and sex in general.
Are the Girl Scouts the same way?
My old Troop Leader was/is a lesbian and her wife came and helped with many of our activities. No one had an issue with that.
I’m sorry, but this is a total d-bag move on Carly’s part. Clearly she (and Train) knew what the Scouts’ policy was BEFORE she signed on in the first place-it certainly isn’t new. Then she hops on the bandwagon under pressure and signs the petition and then, and only then, does she say no to the concert. My only problem here is that if she felt that way, why on the world would she sign on in the first place?? Total BS if you ask me.
Because of the back handed, after-the-fact way this was handled, the only people this punishes now is the kids and that’s a shame. Saying yes only to turn around and then say no seems intentionally aimed to hurt them. Again, the Scouts stance, however any of us may feel about it,isn’t new or news.
As said numerous times upthread, she is Canadian and might not have known that the BSA’s policies are very different than the Scouts in Canada.
Why do you assume she knew? I’m in the UK and it would never occur to me that a youth organisation in this day and age would be open bigots.
We have boy scouts here and they don’t have this policy; we’ve heard from Canadian posters that they don’t. She’s Canadian. She may well not be completely up on the internal politics of foreign organisations.
Maybe she should have asked, but she probably doesn’t ask people booking her for gigs whether they ban all non-white patrons either – in a civilised modern society, it should be a given that something like that wouldn’t happen.
No, believe me. Canadians know. She knew.
@Lots of Canadians don’t know this.
This makes sense, since it’s so ridiculous and bigoted that it wouldn’t occur to most people that such rules exist.
People have different views and opinions that they are entitled to. I am a christian and I believe in the bible and the fact that homosexuality is a sin ( but that is MY belief). I’m not a bad person
and I will never be one to discriminate against gays or bully them or treat them any differently than I would any other person just because I believe it’s a sin. There are always going to be people who think differently than you do and believe in things that differ from what you do and just because I believe in something doesn’t mean I have to enforce it on millions of others ..we all have our lives to live
Loving someone is NOT a “sin”.
+100000000000
what with all these celebs coming and saying the ‘support gay rights’? Obama, Jepsen, Theron, Brangelina?
Do they seriosuly belive in it or are they saying this for PR and promotion?
I think it’s just that they…uh…support gay rights.
Just because people around you don’t support gay rights doesn’t mean that the world isn’t changing. It is. They are the first. Your neighbors will follow.
“thatbitch” – you say homosexuality is a “sin”, but that you don’t bully gay people. What is that if not bullying? Words like that empower the next bully who wants to target a gay person for abuse (emotional, physical or verbal) and the bully will feel self righteous in doing so because people like you are teaching him/her the gay person is a sinner, somehow “less than” anyone else and therefore an ideal target for a moron looking for someone to torment.
Soon, I hope, this is an opinion you will have to keep to yourself in public, just like the many bigoted and racist opinions people would not be able to express in this forum nowadays.
I’d be a lot more impressed with her beliefs if she had had them before being pressured and not just after. Sorry, no extra credit for doing the right thing when you didn’t care right up until you got some negative attention.
I think it makes more of a statement to sign up and then pull out as it shows she was associated with them but decided against it because of their disgusting policies.
If they just asked her and she denied, scouts could always claim it was a rumour that she was asked…?
I thought the boy scouts changed it so each troop could determine their own acceptance rules? Good for Carly Rae and Train though. And good for the Boy Scouts with their anti-inflammatory response.
To everyone saying she didn’t realise the Scouts were homophobic jerks because she’s “Canadian” – uh, I’M Canadian and I knew all about it. She either keeps her head in the sand at all times (and all her people do the same) or she didn’t give a crap about it until people gave her flak for it.
It also a haven for pedophiles. The next Catholic Church.
Schools are a bigger haven for pedophiles than the Catholic Church. But then again, Catholic bashing is the new black.
Look, I grew up Catholic and the problem is not that it happened, but that the Church engaged in a *massive* conspiracy to cover it up, hush it up, and move pedophiles into other parishes where they would interact with other children. They were more concerned about covering their a** than that their actions hurt children (note that Jesus had some pretty choice words involving millstones around people’s necks for hurting children)
I have no issue with gay people. You do what you want, I do what I want and neither of us tell the other what to do and how to live. Life is grand.
But honestly, I think if a boy can recognize his sexuality and orientation he’s too old for boy scouts. I seriously think the cut off should be 12 or 13. Boy and Girl scouts. Once you hit high school you’re WAY too old for the outfit and stuff.
It’s childish IMO. It’s cute they’re selling their cookies and coupon books and earning badges and stuff but it’s not cute once breasts are puffing the uniform out and you’re growing facial hair and the voice is cracking puberty wise.
Kay. Imagine that your husband dies and you are told your children cannot collect his social security because it cannot be proved that he is the biological father. Now imagine if you died and he loses your children to the state because his sperm did not cause their birth. Appalled yet? You just imagined the reality of gay couples across, this country because of our laws. Your bigotry is astounding!.
Why has no one mentioned the fact that she is bi? I’m pretty sue that she’s open about it.
I wish more celebrities would do like Carly and boycott organizations and so forth that discriminate on the basis of sexuality. If such organizations and so forth discriminated against women or people with a skin colour not Caucasian or people with disabilities I think more holy heck would be raised. So good on Carly!
Long-time lurker, first time poster. I am of mixed feelings about this. My husband is a Scout Leader, his brother is an Eagle Scout, my son is just about to earn Life Scout (one step below Eagle). Their father (my son’s grandfather) is gay. We are a very pro-gay rights family, always have been. Part of the problem is that a lot of people see Scouts as ‘square’ and too traditional. The main groups willing to sponsor Scouts are religious organizations, especially Baptist and Mormon ones. They have been leading the drive against homosexuals for years now. I had mixed feelings with my son being in Scouting because of their stance. Then I realized, he can perhaps help affect change from within. If the BSA is left solely to the anti-gay forces, then the policy won’t ever change. As more Scouts and parents are speaking up–as are corporations–the pressure is being put on the change the policy. This came very close to happening just recently until they ‘tabled’ it. If the pressure stays on, I really do believe they’ll change their stance. If everyone just abandons the BSA in droves, then the policy will become entrenched for good. BTW, my son is due to attend this Jamboree in July. Just my two cents as someone who has spent a lot of time internally debating keeping her son involved with Scouts.
I did know that about the Girl Scouts because that’s why my mom wouldn’t let me join. She was scared I’d get molested. Now she denies this and tries to change the story to say she wanted me to join and I refused *eye roll*. She has changed her mind though, and now supports gay rights.