Next week the Boy Scouts of America will vote at their National Council on whether the organization should lift its ban on gay scouts. The group has famously wrestled with the issue of homosexuality over the years; the Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that as a private organization the Boy Scouts could legally ban homosexual troop leaders.
Allowing gay scouts could significantly affect the organization, 70 percent of Boy Scout troops are sponsored by faith based organizations that may pull that sponsorship if gay scouts are allowed, according to The Oklahoman.
A statement released from the Southern Baptist Convention implored the Boy Scouts to keep the prohibition against gay scouts.
"If adopted, the resolution will place the Boy Scouts organization at odds with a consistent biblical worldview on matters of human sexuality, making it an organization that would no longer complement, but rather contradict, belief in God and His moral precepts that serve as the basis for our Christian faith," the statement read.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative advocacy group, said that allowing homosexual scouts would cause more homosexuality and cause "moral confusion," according to U.S. News and World Report.
Former scoutmaster John Stemberger has started a website to voice his concern over the vote, OnMyHonor.net, that has released some of the strongest, and some will argue inflammatory, arguments against allowing gay scouts. The site created a top ten reasons to vote against lifting the ban. According to the site lifting the ban would "inevitably create an increase of boy-on-boy sexual contact...not to mention the tragedy of countless boys who will experience sexual, physical and psychological abuse."
Much of the support for lifting the ban comes from the people who are currently excluded thanks to the ban, homosexual scouts and their parents. Pascal Tessier is an openly gay scout who spoke to PBS about his fear of being kicked out of scouts.
"I've had wonderful experiences with all the other boys and learning all my life skills and becoming a leader and all that," Tessier said. "Right now I'm on the line. I could get a letter any day saying I'm not a part of scouts anymore. I'm kicked out. I would...that's it, that's the end of it. That's the end of ten years of scouting."
Tessier would go on to explain that his sexuality and scouts are not related and that it is unfair to ban people based on it.
"Sexuality does not have a place in scouts. It's about having good morals a being able to be a good person," Tessier said. "Your sexuality doesn't affect your morals."
Tracie Felker is the mother of two openly gay children who have been scouts their entire lives. She spoke to NBS News about how unfair it would be if her sons were to be kicked out of the organization because of their sexuality.
"Nobody was even thinking about whether they would be gay or not," Felker said. "They were perfectly acceptable, wonderful scouts. But as soon as these boys mature and discover their sexual orientation is maybe different than what everyone assumed, suddenly they're no longer considered good enough for Scouts? It doesn't make any sense. They haven't done anything wrong. Their character has not changed. They still adhere to everything scouting is about, so why kick them out?"
