Family Research Council's Tony Perkins still flogging the gay-scoutmasters-are-leches trope on TV

The policy of the Boy Scouts of America is so strict about forbidding one-on-one contact with scouts by adults that a scoutmaster can't even drop off two scouts separately after an outing.
     But inconvenient truths like this get in the way of Tony Perkins' psychological terror tactics, so he simply ignored BSA policy in his most recent interview on CNN, where he once again shamelessly claimed he wasn't accusing gay scoutmasters of pedophilia just after insinuating exactly that in such unmistakable terms that Soledad O'Brien challenged him, according to The Advocate's account:

     O'Brien asked if Perkins was saying that all gay people are pedophiles.

     "No, I never said that," replies Perkins. "You said that. … We've never said that all homosexuals are pedophiles, or that all pedophiles are homosexuals."

     That's simply not true. Perkins has frequently equated homosexuality and pedophilia, and in 2012 alleged the BSA's ban on gay scouts was an issue of "security" to protect "boys victimized by same-sex predators."

Boy Scouts stall decision on gay scouts

After a last-minute, full-court press by right-wing activist groups, including a half-page newspaper ad in USA Today, the Boy Scouts of America now say they need more time to decide whether to follow the Girl Scouts in treating gay scouts and scoutmasters equally.
     (The ad in USA Today probably wasn't very persuasive to editors of the paper, as it recently ran two editorials, here and here advocating a change in the organization's antigay policy.)
     A rally of about 30 antigay demonstrators people outside BSA headquarters in conservative Irving, Texas implored the organization to "save our boys" and accused gay people of trying to "infiltrate" the organization.
     On Monday, over a million petitions from scouting families urging change were delivered to the organization's headquarters.

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Tony Perkins, Richard Land play the pedophile card in attacking Boy Scouts policy debate on gay scouts

Tony Perkins, head of the SPLC-designated hate group Family Research Council released another press release the other day. In it, he predictably reduced the Boy Scouts debate excluding gay scouts and scoutmasters to pedophile fear-mongering:

Apparently, children only matter when it's politically convenient, because President Obama told Scott Pelley yesterday that 'gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does in every institution and walk of life.' This is a man who said he isn't sure he'd let his sons play football for fear that they'd get hurt--yet he can somehow justify putting boys in physically risky situations like these? No father, including Barack Obama, would want his daughters sharing a tent with grown men in the name of 'access'--but you don't hear anyone calling that politically incorrect! At the end of the day, this debate is about safety and time-honored principles of morality. If that ruffles a few politically correct feathers, so be it.

This is a red herring. Decades ago, in response to the phenomenon of pedophiles organizing scout troups in order to prey on kids, the Boy Scouts changed its policy. Either Perkins knows that and is lying or he didn't bother to research Boy Scout policy before exploiting the issue.

Separate accommodations for adults and Scouts required. When camping, no youth is permitted to sleep in the tent of an adult other than his or her own parent or guardian. Councils are strongly encouraged to have separate shower and latrine facilities for females. When separate facilities are not available, separate times for male and female use should be scheduled and posted for showers. Likewise, youth and adults must shower at different times.

     This kind of cynical demonizing of a minority is exactly why the Family Research Council richly deserves its hate group classification.
     Below, Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention, takes up the disinformation-at-gays-expense baton:



Some of Land's talking points:

• Claimed gay-inclusive policies would be a "catastrophe" for Boy Scouts without explaining why that policy hasn't been a catastrophe for Girl Scouts
• Redefined the word "appendage." That most people in the US live on either the west or east coasts doesn't seem to bother Richard Land — to him, they are mere outgrowths of the minority who live in the center: “What they’re doing is to appease their left coast and right coast appendages. They’re cutting out the heart and soul of Scouting in the rest of the country.”
• Made the following distinction-without-a-difference: The Southern Baptist Convention's policy of allowing a local option for female pastors is different from a Boy Scouts' local option for gay scouts because: "Our confession of faith is not binding on any particular Southern Baptist" but the Boy Scouts are different because “You can’t have a local option to a core conviction”
• Made distinction-without-a-difference #2: Richard Land: Do parents really want to allow their teenage boys to go on campouts with men who are attracted to the same sex? They wouldn't allow their girls go on campouts with men who are attracted to women... CNN's John Berman: When I was a cub scout, we had Den Mothers. Richard Land: We're not talking about Cub Scouts, we're talking about Boy Scouts.
• Claimed he wasn't accusing gay scoutmasters of being pedophiles, but then said: "It's gonna lead to human tragedy, and the human tragedy's gonna be, sadly, boys and men who are going to end up in relationships that are going to be tragic."

The head of the Southern Baptist Convention takes four of the USA's Supreme Court Justices!
     The Supreme Court's very split decision in Boy Scouts of America vs. Dale was 5-4.
     Land's expansive interpretation of that decision, which hinged on freedom of association: "The Scouts have said for themselves for over 100 years that traditional morality is a core value of scouting — teaching them to be morally straight... Boy Scouts have the right to define character and they define character as being morally straight and that involves being sexually pure and being a heterosexual."
     Here's what the dissenting opinion by Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer said regarding Land's definition of "morally straight":

As these terms were defined in the Scout Handbook, Stevens said, "it is plain as the light of day that neither one of these principles—'morally straight' and 'clean'—says the slightest thing about homosexuality. Indeed, neither term in the Boy Scouts' Law and Oath expresses any position whatsoever on sexual matters."

Media Matters notes that in the past, Land has claimed that gay people are working to usher in the "full-blown paganization" of America and are "recruiting" children, saying this is "really child abuse."

Jon Stewart's new Gaywatch edition: Boy Scouts and gay domestic violence in the ex-NFL community

(Via ThinkProgress)

Boy Scouts of America finally reconsider antigay policies after yet another PR disaster and 50+ financial aid cutoffs

Last week the BSA (Boy Scouts of America) bullied Maryland Troop 442 into removing a nondiscrimination notice on its web site by threatening to yank the troop's charter. It prevailed, only to be hammered by another round of national disgust, distilled smartly by GLAAD President Herndon Graddick in Mother Jones magazine:

     To think that the Boy Scouts would rather cast out elementary school children than accept a parent-approved policy allowing gay children and parents to participate is just unconscionable. How many young Scouts is the BSA willing to sacrifice in order to preserve its harmful and discriminatory policies? This despicable act of bullying and intimidation is yet another reminder that the BSA is out of touch with its members and the American public at large.

Below: earlier this month Bay Area BSA officials issued a gag order to stiff-arm media inquiries about denial of Eagle Scout award to gay scout Ryan Andreson:



Now, Pete Williams of NBC reports that the organization "is actively considering an end to its decades-long policy of banning gay scouts or scout leaders."

     Two corporate CEOs on BSA’s national board, Randall Stephenson of AT&T and James Turley of Ernst & Young, have also said they would work to end the ban. Stephenson is next in line to be the BSA’s national chairman. During the 2012 presidential campaign, both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney said the BSA should admit gay scouts and scout leaders.
     About 50 local United Way groups and several corporations and charities have concluded that the ban violates their non-discrimination requirements and have ceased providing financial aid to the Boy Scouts.

Are Mormon Boy Scout executives ruining the organization's reputation?

Ryan Andreson, on whom Boy Scouts of America national
leaders have most recently brought down their hammer

The Boy Scouts of America has quickly become the Chick-fil-A of youth organizations.
      Instead of changing with the times, as have Girl Scouts, the BSA, in case after case, has fostered arbitrary discrimination against decent, upstanding gay or agnostic scouts or scoutmasters (reflecting historic and ongoing LDS prejudice) causing the organization one PR black eye after another and thousands of affected or sympathetic parents to look elsewhere for a better organization in which to enroll their sons.
     The BSA has a monopoly on the use of the word "Scouting" among boys, as no other male youth organization in the US may use "scouts" or "scouting" in its name. Reason: Wikipedia says the BSA lobbied Congress for a federal charter (to deal with competition from the Lone Scouts of America), which was granted to them by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916.
     Mormons exert far more influence in scouting than their incidence in the US population would lead one to believe, because the Mormon Church sponsors about 1/3 of the organization's troops. The BSA National Executive Board (about 77 members) rules the organization and has or does include such prominent LDS heavyweights as Mitt Romney, Thomas S. Monson and many others.
     This intransigent leadership repeatedly comes down hard — public relations be damned — on local scouting officials who dare to treat gay scouts or scoutmasters equitably.
     Currently, in the current San Francisco Bay Area, we see the spectacle of 18-year-old Ryan Andresen, who, after working toward Eagle Scout status for a decade and having his application approved by an Eagle Board of Review, suddenly saw his hopes dashed when national Boy Scout leaders reversed a local decision, and then evidently issued a gag order to the Bay Area Scout officials, after which, according to GLAAD, BSA smeared the teen.

ABC affiliate: San Francisco Boy Scout officials issue gag order to stiff-arm media inquiries about denial of Ryan Andreson's Eagle Scout award

Says GLAAD President Herndon Graddick, in a statement: 

Councils across the nation are rejecting the Boy Scouts' grossly discriminatory ban on gay scouts, echoing the support of fellow scouts, business leaders, and the American public. How long can the BSA go on ignoring its own members and its core values of fairness, leadership and integrity? The growing number of councils welcoming gay scouts and leaders reminds BSA autocrats: change will come with you, or without you.

 

Zach Wahls starts another petition — aimed at UPS — over Boy Scout funding

Wahls was successful in convincing Intel to stop giving $700,000 a year to the organization, whose leadership is dominated by Mormons, pending a change in its antigay policies. Now he's asking UPS to do the same, noting that the Boy Scouts’ policy “...is inconsistent with how UPS views workplace equality and it is inconsistent with the Scout Law, which demands bravery, loyalty and kindness....” The UPS petition says, in part:

UPS Foundation President Eduardo Martinez should know all too well how senseless and out-of-touch the Boy Scouts’ anti-gay policy is. Mr. Martinez serves as Chair of the Corporate Development Council for the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and is a board member for The Metro Atlanta YMCA. Both of these organizations welcome and benefit from embracing gay youth and leaders in their programming.

Major League Soccer cuts ties to Boy Scouts; Is BSA a hostage of LDS and other right-wing religions?

Above graphic links to GLAAD

In the wake, last week, of its decision to maintain a ban on gay scouts and LGBT leaders and Major League Soccer's decision to end its relationship with the Boy Scouts of America, GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, has published a chart contrasting the BSA's gay policy with those of other US youth organizations. Many have concluded that the BSA has become the hostage of right wing religious organizations.

Portland gay activist urges neighbors to boycott Boy Scouts fundraiser

The Boy Scouts of America, accused of concealing a list of 5,000 proven or suspected pedophiles, issued a statement in which it opines that it should dictate in what forums gay civil rights may or may not be discussed.

The BSA believes that its youth program is not the appropriate forum in which to discuss issues of sexuality.

Are Boy Scouts of America sitting on a list of 5,000 proven or suspected pedophiles in their ranks?

Imagine a national organization with tens of thousands of young male charges largely under the direction of a joint hierarchy dominated by secretive Mormons and duplicitous Catholics. Or vice versa. Or combinations thereof. What could go wrong? The Fifth Estate investigative program of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation found out.

LOS ANGELES -- Boy Scout officials in the U.S. and Canada not only failed to stop an admitted child molester in their ranks, but sometimes helped cover his tracks, according to confidential records, court files and interviews with victims and their families.

     Boy Scouts of America officials didn't call police in 1979 after Richard Turley acknowledged molesting three Orange County boys, records show.

     ...Turley is one of more than 5,000 suspected child molesters named in confidential documents kept by the Boy Scouts of America. The records – called the "perversion files" by the Scouts – include admissions of guilt as well as unproven allegations.

     ...The Oregon Supreme Court is now weighing a request by newspapers, a wire service and broadcasters to open about 1,200 more files in the wake of a nearly $20-million judgment in a Portland sex abuse case last year.

     ...Current Boy Scouts of America officials declined to be interviewed and would not say how many files exist or what is in them. Their lawyers have said the records are confidential, to protect victims and because some of the files are based on unsubstantiated tips.
     "The BSA has continued to enhance its youth protection efforts as society has increased its understanding of the dangers children face," the Scouts said in a statement.

The CBC has created a timeline of abuse and coverup.

Related: The Boy Scouts of America's Mormon problem.

New suit filed against Boy Scouts of America

Perhaps the BSA is spending too much effort going after gay Scoutmasters and not enough time busting pedophile Scoutmasters.