Good scout, bad ethics
Aug 9, 2012, 6:31 PM | Updated: 6:31 pm
At last, something President Obama, Mitt Romney and I can agree on.
We’re all opposed to the Boy Scouts of America continuing its ban on gay scouts or leaders. The White House officially confirmed the president’s stand on Wednesday, while Romney has been publicly opposed since 1994. My opposition has received considerably less attention, but it is personally no less deeply felt.
While the national scouting organization is constitutionally within its rights as a quasi-private entity, doesn’t it seem monumentally hypocritical of them to exclude any group of citizens while publicly positioning itself as anti—discriminatory?
If the fear is that young boys could be exposed to contact with gay scout leaders, that thinking is archaic and baseless. Pedophiles are far more often heterosexuals who prey on children.
As a matter of fact, the Boy Scouts of America is currently being asked to open their so-called perversion files, containing thousands of pages of investigations of sexual abuse by Boy Scout leaders across the country.
But for now, the Boy Scout oath tells us proudly that a scout is trustworthy, loyal and straight.
I’m Pat McMahon.
