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My love/hate relationship with the B.S.A.
"In this chapter much has been said of the active measures which a boy should take in order to become strong and well. We should be equally concerned in saving and storing up natural forces we already have. In the body of every boy, who has reached his teens, the Creator of the universe has sown a very important fluid. This fluid is the most wonderful material in all the physical world. Some parts of it find their way into the blood, and through the blood give tone to the muscles, power to the brain, and strength to the nerves. This fluid is the sex fluid. When this fluid appears in a boy’s body, it works a wonderful change in him. His chest deepens, his shoulders broaden, his voice changes, his ideals are changed and enlarged. It gives him the capacity for deep feeling, for rich emotion. Pity the boy, therefore, who has wrong ideas of this important function, because they will lower his ideals of life. These organs actually secrete into the blood material that makes a boy manly, strong, and noble. Any habit which a boy has that causes this fluid to be discharged from the body tends to weaken his strength, to make him less able to resist disease, and often unfortunately fastens upon him habits which later in life he cannot break. Even several years before this fluid appears in the body such habits are harmful to a growing boy.
To become strong, therefore, one must be pure in thought and clean in habit. This power which I have spoken of must be conserved, because this sex function is so deep and strong that there will come times when temptation to wrong habits will be very powerful. But remember that to yield means to sacrifice strength and power and manliness."
-An actual quote from an older version of the BSA's Handbook for Boys(1913 Edition). This section is titled, "Conservation."
I was in the Boy Scouts for many years. I earned 28 merit badges, and achieved Eagle Rank at the age of 16. I served a number of functions in my troop, including scribe, webmaster, and patrol leader. Thinking back on my time in the Boy Scouts, I have to say I'm glad I was involved. I enjoyed the opportunities for outdoor exploration that were available to me. I also had fun learning a number of useful skills, and teaching those skills to others in turn. I don't think I would be quite the person I am today had I not been involved with the BSA.
When it comes to the basic tenets of Boy Scouting, I agree with most of them. This is the Scout Law. It's a list of 12 characteristics that all Boy Scouts should strive to have:
Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.
With the possible exceptions of obedience and reverence, I'd like to think I’m a pretty good Boy Scout. I donate blood regularly, I try to keep my conscience clear, and though I've never actually come across a little old lady who needed help crossing the street, I feel confident that I would assist her. I’m particularly fond of the Boy Scout’s slogan to, “do a good turn daily.” I believe very strongly in courtesy and tolerance towards all people, regardless of race, creed, religion, or sexual orientation. I know that many other boy scouts feel exactly the same way.
Unfortunately, I discovered that the Boy Scouts of America had a number of policies that became increasingly distasteful to me over the years. One of the most blatant was the ever-present militaristic atmosphere. The parallels between the United States Military and the Boy Scouts of America are too numerous to count. Groups of scouts are called “troops” or “patrols.” Uniforms are required at most troop events, and status in the troop is almost always denoted by rank. When I first joined my Boy Scout troop, I didn’t really mind the atmosphere. Indeed, it was even exciting for me to be a part of such a group. During my later years, however, things became substantially more militant. Instead of simply teaching skills and applying them on outings, the focus of my troop switched to winning an annual troop-wide competition, called a “Camporee.” Our new scoutmaster (a former Army Ranger), put more and more pressure on patrol leaders to win, forcing them to conduct “knot tying drills,” and “surprise uniform inspections” during troop meetings. At one meeting, my own patrol leader, caught up in the competitive atmosphere, forced his patrol members to do twenty push-ups if they weren’t wearing an appropriate uniform.
It took me a long time to start asking questions about homosexuality’s place in the Boy Scouts of America. When I was a Scout, the Supreme Court cases on gay scout leaders were being extensively covered in the media. However, there was almost no discussion of them within my troop. For a group that preached tolerance and celebration of diversity, the exclusion of gay leaders seemed strangely contradictory to me. When I asked my scoutmaster about these policies, he told me that our troop had nothing against gay people, and was simply following policies set by his superiors. This seems to be the general rule for most Boy Scout troops I’ve seen. Policy descending from the higher echelons of the B.S.A. bureaucracy is seldom questioned. The issue of homosexuality is rarely discussed during meetings, and is considered comfortably distant from the troop’s normal activities. Most boy scouts I’ve talked to don’t consider themselves to be homophobic at all. They raise funds, earn merit badges, and serve the community. They become defensive when accused of bigotry and homophobia, because they simply don’t believe they’re actively participating in these things. Other leaders I’ve spoken to disagreed with the anti-gay policies, but continued to stay in the organization, arguing that the positive aspects of the BSA far outweigh the negative.
Eventually, the hypocritical policies and militant attitude of the Boy Scouts of America became too much for me to accept. Though the Boy Scouts have had a great effect on my life, I’m deeply saddened by the conservative direction in which they’ve turned. In order to redeem itself, I think the Boy Scouts of America needs to distance itself from military, and sever itself completely from the influence of the religious right. Perhaps it would help to remember that the vaunted founder of scouting, Lord Baden Powell himself, was a notorious cross dresser. Instead of perpetuating intolerance, the organization should lead by example, teaching America’s youth to cherish diversity in all of its forms.