gruffbrown

Weirdo.

David Armstrong

I can suspect this is probably the case with most Troops across America.

The world Jamboree was held last year here In Sweden with 40.000 scouts from around the world.For the American scout troops that attended they were openly exposed to what "World Scouting" meant ie:Respect & tolerance for the diversity of race religion creed colour and sexual orientation we have (Or should have) in the world of today! Hopefully those American scout troop leaders who returned home took with them the sense of how different the BSA is from the rest of the world of scouting, and how they need to step into the 21st century, heads held high and unafraid of change.

Here in Sweden we have "Scouts" full stop! This is a mixture of ages and sexes and is only divide up on age range to enable teaching and guiding methods at various levels. Our scouts get to grow up with the real sense of tolerance and cooperation with their fellow scouts and the world in which they live.

On the WOSM (http://scout.org/ ) site which is the governing body of scouts and recognises the BSA as a member (It had no choice as there are no other Scout organisations in the USA, Thanks to the congressional charter!) you will not find the words :homosexual, homophobic, heterosexul, gay or any other word associated with sexual orientation. There are also no requirements for individuals to qualify (sex,religion,orientation) as a scout member. Unfortunately the young people (Boys and Girls) of the United States are saddled with an organisation that is run from a political christian right wing point of view.

This is interesting reading ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baden-Powell) especially at the bottom of the page which shows that world of scouting has developed and moved forward within the world in which we all live, thank goodness!

MostlyYank

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSwjuz_-yao



Pete

Bob

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-m...th-chick-fil-a

On a bit of a side note, but this regarding Chick-Fil-A....the Muppets, well Jim Henson, company are re-donating all their donations to them to GLAAD.

Yorkieabroad

Sounds like ours runs differently....talking to my wife tonight, apparently even the moms aren't allowed in the meetings! They hold them in a church, and the girls and 3 leaders go in one room for the meeting, and the moms (or dads), if they want to stay, have to sit in the room next door. I don't actually have a problem with that - I'd often prefer to have fewer parents at the Den meetings I lead for my cubscouts!

Every year they do a sort of mini jamboree, called Camp Like a Girl. My daughter was a Daisy, so she was only a daycamper, but they needed so many chaperones. I volunteered, but got an email from the Service Unit leader (?? is that the one higher than the Troop leader?) saying that men were not allowed on the site for daycampers. Don't know where the policy came from. Dads were allowed to camp overnight (for the older girls), but they were camping in a different field.

Zen10

I agree. Being a private organization doesn't mean they have no impact on wider society. I'm certain people would object if they started teaching kids that the Holocaust never happened, wouldn't they? I'm in Australia by the way, where there are more organized religious retreats and camps than in the UK but obviously nothing like in the US. I don't think they would get away with this in Australia or the UK.

redglade

As adults (even the female ones) aren't supposed to be alone with a girl anyway - that makes no sense to me, especially as having enough adults for the correct "safety-wise" ratio is always a hassle. Adults and girls aren't allowed to share tents while camping anyway - but having you in the next field seems a bit extreme, unless its to make sure you have your own bathroom facilities. Having said that - there were no men at our "Camp Happy" this summer (all day campers)...perhaps I had better check into it more thoroughly. There may be different rules for the big day camps because there are State of Texas rules and regulations that need to be followed too.

Yorkieabroad

[QUOTE=David Armstrong;10187845]
I don't know, I've only been exposed to a few Packs and even fewer Troops in our area, so couldn't comment on what goes on elsewhere.

To be honest, that is a criticism you could level at some areas of the community here, but I'd be surprised if the scouts that could travel to the Jamboree were seeing much about tolerance / respect / diversity / cooperation that they didn't get at their home units, with the exception of 1) sexual orientation which isn't taught at Scouts (or school here for that matter) and 2) co-ed units which don't start till (I think) 14 or 16 yo in the US. Again, very area specific, and not saying that this is representative of the US as a whole, but we had a boy leave our soccer team to return to Gavle because of his Dads job - his mum was very upset because he was going to be losing his exposure to diversity of race, religion, background to return to an environment of predominantly natives with few foreigners. I think I'd have the same concerns if I were to return to North Yorkshire, but perhaps less so elsewhere in the UK.


I'm missing something on this...why is that a problem? WOSM recognizes the Scout Association in the UK, which was a descendant of the Boy Scout Association which was granted its charter by the UK parliament....is there any difference?

In fact, according to this it seems WOSM only recognises one scouting organization per country....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...vement_members

And thats not just in Scouting....fortunately, in Scouting, as it is parent led for the younger scouts, and scout led for the older ones, its easy to find a unit that fits with the family requirements.

Yorkieabroad

That sounds like similar policies to the Boy Scouts with the Youth Protection Training, although adults are allowed to share tents with their own offspring, just not with any others.
State of Texas have come down on the BSA YPT rules this year, saying they didn't meet the standards of the other summer camps etc. We used to be able to do the YPT every 2 years with an online "class" and "test". Now Texas is requiring it to be done in face to face training, with a written test at the end. PITA, but I guess it does avoid the scenario where my wife managed to watch 6 episodes of "24" while taking her online drivers ed course

pcross

Actually, the boy scout thing is a bit nasty however, the bit about Chick-Fil-A is no-sweat. He was ASKED about his personal beliefs. Don't ask a question you're not prepared for the answer to. This is coming from a gay Christian

cranston

very wise...

pcross

Why thank you I'm not an expat -- 100% all-American boy here, but I do have an interest in the English culture, and it's interesting to see how your country is looked at through the eyes of someone else. I hope to make some friends here.