Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Internal survey sent to parents and scout masters find that many identify the gay ban as negatively affecting their customer loyalty to the Boy Scouts.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

In the fall of 2012, months before the Boy Scouts of America announced it would consider overturning its decades-old ban on gay Scouts and scout leaders, the group sent a survey to Boy Scouts, parents, and scout leaders. The survey did not include a question about the ban, but it did ask respondents to explain what impacted their decision to recommend the Boy Scouts to their friends and families. Despite the open-ended nature of the question, around 5,500 (about eight percent) of the 68,441 respondents volunteered that the gay ban negatively affected their "customer loyalty" to the Boy Scouts. Only a tiny fraction of the respondents—a few hundred—expressed explicit support for the gay ban. Now a fight over how to interpret those results is brewing between the Boy Scouts and Scouts for Equality, an independent organization pushing for an end to the gay ban. 

"The biggest takeaway from the survey is that there is a ton of energy in the scouting community for changing the policy," says Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout raised by two lesbian mothers, and founder of Scouts for Equality. 

But Deron Smith, director of public relations for the Boy Scouts of America, tells Mother Jones that since the survey didn't include any specific questions about the ban, and only nine percent of respondents brought it up in an open-ended question about why they would or wouldn't recommend the Boy Scouts, "it is insufficient to accurately predict the beliefs of our membership as a whole." 

This Deron Smith guy may only be able to argue this point for a few more weeks because there is another, much more focused survey coming soon, and I predict that it will substantiate a,d expand on the findings of the earlier survey.
 
What Scouts, leaders, and parents think about the ban should be clearer soon. A 2013 spring survey specifically addressing the ban was sent to about 1.1 million scouts and their families earlier this month. It includes questions like, "David, a Boy Scout, believes that homosexuality is wrong... Steve, an openly gay youth, applies to be a member. Is it acceptable or unacceptable for this troop to deny Steve membership in their troop?" The results of that survey are expected​ April 4, just over a month before 1,400 members of the group's national council will vote on whether to end the ban.

This. much like the ban on gay marriage in this country, is essentially a done deal. The Boy Scouts have been doing their best to fight the inevitable, but I believe that once this new survey is returned that the organization will have no choice but to openly accept EVERYBODY regardless of who and how they love.

You know the thing is that the Boy Scouts already have a number of gay scouts and scout leaders, all this will do is allow them to no longer have to hide that fact from their peers.

Gee the freedom to be who you are without fear of discrimination or penalty. Does it GET any more American than that?


14 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:34 AM

    O/T Mark Begich, Democratic Senator From Alaska, Issues Statement In Support Of Same Sex Marriage

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/26/mark-begich-same-sex-marriage-statement_n_2953056.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:19 AM

      One of the lawyers arguing to defend California's Proposition 8 (banning gay marriage) said that children need a mother and a father, two parents of different sexes. When will Sarah Palin demand another apology? How dare that lawyer single out single parents (or gay parents) as not being able to provide the same loving atmosphere for their children? Oh, Sarah, please don't let that lawyer insult your daughter!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous7:15 AM

    Arizona gun shop owner tells boy scout Mark Kelly to pound sand.

    Not a good day for the Giffords & Kelly dog and pony roadshow.

    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/26/Denied-Gun-Store-Owner-Refuses-To-Hand-AR-15-Over-To-Mark-Kelly

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  3. Glad to see this happening. Time for the Boy Scouts to live up to their potential and be as honorable as they claim to be.

    When I discovered the Girl Scouts were "grooming" all those future sluts, I bought even more cookies the last two years. (If I didn't hide them from myself, I'd weigh 300 lbs.)

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  4. physicsmom8:36 AM

    I'm not as optimistic as you are with regard to the results of the new survey. Remember, this is a self-selected community, one which embraced the idea of exclusivity from the beginning. If I had to commit to a guess, I think the positive response will be about 10%, similar to the first open-ended one.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous8:47 AM

    Live SCOTUS Gay Marriage Live Tweets

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/26/live-scotus-gay-marriage-live-tweets.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous9:34 AM

    Supreme Court posts audio of oral arguments in Prop. 8 case

    The Supreme Court posted audio and transcripts on Tuesday of oral arguments heard in the case of Hollingsworth v. Perry, which argues that California’s Proposition 8, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman, is unconstitutional.

    Proposition 8, which Californians ratified in the 2008 election, has been struck down as discriminatory by both district and federal appeals courts. Arguing the case before the Supreme Court Tuesday were Theodore Olson, former Solicitor General under George W. Bush and Democratic Lawyer David Boies in favor of the plaintiffs and Charles Cooper, a former Justice Department official under President Ronald Reagan who argued in favor of Proposition 8 and found time within his testimony to boast about his fertility.

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/26/supreme-court-posts-audio-of-oral-arguments-in-prop-8-case/

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous10:37 AM

    "But Deron Smith, director of public relations for the Boy Scouts of America, tells Mother Jones that since the survey didn't include any specific questions about the ban, and only nine percent of respondents brought it up in an open-ended question about why they would or wouldn't recommend the Boy Scouts, "it is insufficient to accurately predict the beliefs of our membership as a whole." "

    The same state of denial logic applies to the questions the survey didn't ask about the Official BSA Boy Scout Perversion Files. Just change a couple of words to see how this might work.

    "Deron Smith, director of public relations for the Boy Scouts of America, tells Mother Jones that since the survey didn't include any specific questions about the Official BSA Perversion Files (official trademark of the BSA- used with permission), and the crimes and perverts that the files helped cover up, and only nine percent of respondents brought it up in an open-ended question about why they would or wouldn't recommend the Boy Scouts, "it is insufficient to accurately predict the beliefs of our membership as a whole."

    Because maybe the 'disloyal customers' haven't heard about the perverts and all the binders full of them at BSA headquarters. Maybe they don't read the LA Times either. Or use the internetz.
    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/10/wisconsin-physician-surrenders-license-in-boy-scout-molestation-case.html

    "A prominent Wisconsin pediatrician who admitted molesting two boys while serving as a Boy Scout camp doctor in the 1980s voluntarily gave up his medical license Tuesday after additional complaints of abuse surfaced.

    Thomas Kowalski, 75, was the target of an investigation by the state’s medical examining board after The Times reported in September that he had been expelled from the Boy Scouts in 1987 after he admitted he masturbated while fondling two teenage boys in his care.

    The parents declined to press charges, and Scouting officials used their connections with the publisher of a Milwaukee paper to keep the story out of the press, Scouting records show. Kowalski, identified in confidential Scouting files as an author of state child abuse laws, admitted the allegations in an interview with The Times. He continued to work with children behind closed doors until his retirement in 2001."

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  8. Anonymous10:53 AM

    Keep fags away from the Boy Scouts.
    Do you trust a gay Scoutmaster with your son.
    Keep DOMA and hope Prop 8 is upheld.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:16 AM

      No you know as well as I do that Boy Scouts don't encourage smoking ;-)

      My brother's cub scout master was screwing everyone but his wife and his boy scout master was a drunk. So much for hetero "family values" huh? My brother always says her learned A LOT about WHAT NOT TO DO, from his scoutmasters.

      He also turned in his silly little eagle scout badge because of homophobia in the scouts, so did my husband and my father.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous4:36 PM

      So, basically, you're gay, but don't want anybody to know. It's ok. We will accept you if you come out.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous11:13 AM

    Maybe the gays can help them update those horrendous little outfits that they wear. Seriously boys, shorts, knee socks and hankies around your neck? Poop brown with red and army green? And Scouts wonder why they're picked on in school and can't ever find a date...look in the mirror! If the Scouts are going to leave the 1950's behind then those uniforms should be the FIRST thing to go. There's also so really anachronistic and ass backwards shit in that little handbook of theirs. That should be the second thing they fix.

    ;-)

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  10. I wonder if the Boy Scouts will go with "separate but equal" in this.

    Have some exclusively LGBT ONLY troops to segregate gay scouts and leaders.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous4:36 PM

    The Mormons won't care.

    ReplyDelete

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It just goes directly to their thighs.