This is from an editorial in the Kansas City Star:
For lack of a better description, the Boy Scouts' latest proposal for relaxing its ban on gays seems like a backward step forward. If approved next month by the organization's 1,400-member governing council, the gay ban will be eliminated for youth members.
This would be no small change. It means Boys Scouts would abandon the position for which it fought to the Supreme Court more than a decade ago.
On another point, the organization has wrongly balked: It proposes to maintain an outright ban on gay adult volunteers, and it's no surprise this makes few people happy.
Human rights organizations, including gay rights groups, are upset about continuation of the ban on adult gays, while the Family Research Council, which supports the ban on gays generally, called the plan "incoherent."
Earlier this year, the Boy Scouts proposed that each troop be allowed to decide for itself whether to accept gays. While this drew criticism, it seemed to make more practical sense and pointed toward gradual change.
With gays accepted in many troops, summer camps would have to deal quickly with the new policy. This would have created steady momentum toward acceptance within the organization as a whole. Over time the number of troops maintaining the ban would likely drop.
The earlier plan drew criticism for failing to quickly end the gay exclusion, but it at least would have avoided the absurd message a gay Eagle Scout would receive under the latest proposal: "Congratulations, young man, you've been a good Scout. You've achieved scouting's highest award. But you'll be 18 soon. After that, don't bother coming around here anymore."
There's a better way forward: adopt a nondiscrimination policy for scouts and leaders.
