Word: scouting
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...your story "Can A Scout Be Gay?" [LAW, May 1]: When will the Boy Scouts of America and the rest of the world realize there already are gay and lesbian people occupying all sorts of unlikely positions in which they may interact with children? There is no strong evidence showing that gay and lesbian people have any particular influence over children, positive or negative. Can a scout be gay? Hundreds are. Ask them! MARY PONTERIO Jacksonville...
Almost 30 years ago, I drove my 12-year-old son to a weekend camping trip with his Boy Scout troop. We arrived at 8 in the evening. The boys were in their tents, and the scoutmaster, assistant scoutmaster and two father chaperones were in a camper trailer drinking whiskey sours; the scoutmaster was pretty well in the bag. I reluctantly left my son there and worried all weekend about his being supervised by that group of "morally straight" men. I would have been far happier to have him in the care of a responsible gay scoutmaster like James Dale...
...foot in the door was a matter of fortuitous timing, then making his way through the baseball ranks was a matter of skill. Within two years of making van runs to pick up players from the airport while getting paid almost nothing as an intern, he was named Advance Scout for the 1997 and 1998 seasons. He wrote scouting reports for each regular and postseason series, performed the background work for various roster moves, and oversaw the Indians' professional scouting system...
...most wrenching internal controversies for the Scouts have involved gay boys, not gay leaders. Local scoutmasters routinely allow boys who come out to remain in scouting, though if headquarters finds out, locals risk losing their charter. In August a 16-year-old eagle scout applied for a job at Camp Yawgoog, a Boy Scout retreat 30 minutes west of Providence, R.I. Camp director Gary Savignano, reeling from a recent pedophilia scandal, asked the boy if he was gay. When the boy said yes, Savignano told him he couldn't have...
...ensued, and someone eventually pointed out that Rhode Island has a law against anti-gay discrimination. The local Scout council issued a statement offering the kid the job. But when the men at Scout headquarters heard about the controversy, they had spokesman Gregg Shields confirm that the boy can't be a scout if he is gay. The local council quickly backtracked, reaching an uneasy compromise with headquarters: the boy kept the job--and his scouting membership--but he had to agree not to talk about being gay. Since then, the United Way and other funders have been under pressure...