A Boy Scout Schism?

Last updated on: April 11, 2015 at 12:12 pm by Jane the Actuary

A Boy Scout Schism? 2015-04-11T12:12:18-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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The latest news on Boy Scouts and gays seems to have caused barely a ripple, as last week, as the Washington Post, and other news outlets, reported last Friday that the Greater New York Council has hired Pascal Tessier, an 18 year old Eagle Scout who is openly — and activist-ly — gay as a summer camp counselor. What’s more, this wasn’t an “accidental” hire by virtue of him having his application reviewed and accepted under the same terms as any other applicant, with no knowledge of his history of protesting the now-lifted ban on gay youth. According to the Post,

On Thursday, the Boy Scouts’ Greater New York Councils announced another pivotal moment: It hired Tessier as a summer camp leader — in direct defiance of the national organization’s rules.

Is it possible that the “announcement” was not intended as such, that the hiring was meant to fall into a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach, but became public due to some inquiry by a reporter, but that’s not the impression that the article communicates. From all appearances, this was clearly meant to push the national organization to relent on the ban against gay adult leaders and employees. According to the New York Times, the local council is being a bit disingenuous, in saying, “gosh, we passed his name onto the national organization and they didn’t say no . . . ”

The Times further reports

His lawyer, David Boies — one of the lawyers who challenged Proposition 8, the 2008 initiative in California that banned same-sex marriage and was later overturned in the courts — said that the challenge was meant to be nonconfrontational but that a change in the policy was inevitable. “What I hope is they will see this as an opportunity to get themselves out of a place where they don’t want to be,” he said of national scouting leaders. “An institution like the Boy Scouts doesn’t want to be the last bastion of discrimination nationally.”

So what next?

Boy Scouts is an organization that has done a lot of good for a lot of boys. I believe in their mission, of providing a framework for boys to become responsible adults, learning about the outdoors and service to others along the way.

At the same time, our troop is declining in numbers, and the organization as a whole is facing the same problems. Where a generation or two ago, every boy joined scouts, it’s much less prevalent, as boys are more interested in sports, including time-intensive travel teams, and less interested in the outdoors — and, of course, Boy Scouts are now viewed as a somewhat nerdy uncool endeavor.

I’m not able to readily lay my hands on the decline over time — I’ll update with this later — so as to easily counter the claim that’s been offered that Boy Scouts are losing members due to this very controversy, with parents objecting to their discrimination against gays, so that if only they opened up their membership, members, volunteers, and donors would come flocking back.

But it’s not that simple. Several years ago, the Scouts opened up access to its so-called “perversion files.” Parents worry. Yes, the Boy Scouts has a policy of “two-deep leadership,” that no leader is ever allowed to be alone with a boy. But — is this foolproof? It’s foolish to think so; if a leader wants to take advantage of a boy (of if a young adult is enamored with an older teen), in a situation with multiple adults and the busy-ness of a weekend outing or a summer camp, I imagine the other leaders will not necessarily be able to keep close track of what’s going on.

And the Girl Scouts? Yes, they’ve been open to lesbians without it ever being an issue — except that the conventional wisdom is that all manner of things parents would be shocked by indeed happen at Girl Scout camp. Whether this is just a running joke, or is there truth to the matter, I don’t want to speculate. And, of course, conservative Christian parents have withdrawn from Girl Scouts for this, among other, reasons — and Boy Scouts is far more outing-focused than Girl Scouts.

Is it really appropriate to push the issue, and to push parents away who may, in principle, agree with ideals of non-discrimination, but, when it comes to their sons, don’t want to take any chances, not to mention church sponsoring organizations, some of whom have already moved to more explicitly faith-based groups such as “Trail Life“?

This boy declares his love for Scouts — but to push for inclusion risks doing great damage to the institution. He is, however, though an adult, still quite young, too young, perhaps, to reflect on the risks and consequences of his actions. It’s all the other adults — the council leadership — who are pushing the issue, and risking bringing about a schism of sorts, and who, many of them, may not even be particularly dedicated to Scouts, so much as having landed in their roles due to general non-profit work, and see this as an opportunity to further their greater cause of LGBT non-discrimination.

Is it really worth it? If the Boy Scouts is effectively dismantled due to gay-rights activism, there will not be a more noble equality-loving youth organization rising up to take its place. There simply won’t be any winners in this battle.

(Clarification: I am really not intending to say that gay leaders are a real threat to boys, or would set a bad example in some way. I don’t buy into fears that they would hit on the boys or that multiple gay leaders would join up and, say, make out with each other at the campfire. My concern is far more the pragmatic one that fighting this battle, will have the effect, however unintended, of causing lasting division among Boy Scout families and sponsoring organizations.)

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