Girl, not Boy Scouts have it right

Girl, not Boy Scouts have it right

The July 18 Daily Herald reports that the Boy Scouts of America has emphatically reaffirmed its policy of excluding gays from the membership and leadership in the Boy Scouts, and it is also known that atheists are excluded from the Boy Scouts as well.

It is true that the Supreme Court some years ago ruled that the Boy Scouts is a private and not a public organization, and therefore it is free to exclude gays and atheists from membership and leadership positions without violating any constitutional principles.

However, although I myself was a Boy Scout in my younger years, I now strongly disagree with the Boy Scouts’ policies, and I will never again be supportive of them. By excluding gays and atheists from membership, the Boy Scouts teach our young boys at a very early age that it is quite proper for them to be discriminatory toward others based on religion and on sexual orientation, and that it is quite acceptable to adopt an exclusionary philosophy of life. This I do not think our young boys need to be taught.

Rather, I am wholeheartedly supportive of the Girl Scouts of the USA and their totally nondiscriminatory, inclusionary and welcoming policy toward all. That is the way I would like to see our young children brought up.

Theodore M. Utchen

Wheaton