But god forbid that a lesbian should ever defile their ranks.

She might want to know that the Salvation Army also don't like The Gay.

No atheists. No LGBT leaders or even members. Their time is past, and thinking people should stop supporting this organization until it moves into the current century.

I am a leader of a troop in Houston. My son has aged out a long time ago but I am still active with the troop. In Houston and most large councils, there is an unofficial rule that no one cares about the sexual orientation of a leader or a scout so long as they do not wear their scout uniform to a gay pride event. The Sam Houston Area Council ("SHAC&quot is one of the largest councils in BSA. The district to which my troop belongs has several leaders who may be gay or who are "known" to be gay by some. No one cares so long as these leaders do not do something stupid such as weak their scout uniform to a gay pride event. The BSA v. Dale case involved a young scout leader who actually did wear his uniform to a gay pride event. Wearing a scout uniform to any political event is a violation of the BSA rules and so the SCOTUS could have ruled in BSA's favor without getting into the gay issue. Two of the scout leaders in my district who may be gay also taught me at the fundamentals of scoutmaster course. I would have no trouble with these people teaching my scouts.

The committee chair of my troop and I have both visited with and discuss the issue with senior leadership at SHAC. Some of the senior leaders would like to change the policy and are in fear of this policy blowing up and hurting fund raising for SHAC. One reason that SHAC has a "don't ask, don't tell" policy is that a number of the organizations who chartered or sponsored the units with gay leaders also have strong political contacts and/or members who are on the board of United Way and other similar organization.

The main reason why the BSA has this policy is due to the large number of LDS troops and scouts. In our council, LDS students are less than 5% of the population but LDS scouts and units are 15% to 20% of the number of scouts and units. Many BSA leaders would be happy to get rid of the current policy if they could prevent the LDS units from breaking off. During the Dale case, the LDS units were threatening to form their own organization and to break away from BSA if the SCOTUS ruled against BSA.

The current BSA policy is stupid and there are people who are working from within to change it. This particular council or district was not playing by the same unofficial rules as many urban councils and districts. The petition on Change.org may help but the best way to have an impact is to go after funding and the United Way. SHAC knows that if it tries to enforce the national policy that it would be risking a great deal of funding.

I don't care how cool 'n' groovy your own particular troop/leader is, you are supporting discrimination and bigotry when you let your kids join the Scouts. If your child really wants to belong to something like the Cubscouts or Scouts, there are other great groups like Campfire, or you can make your own group (that's what we did).