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Mormon Church Cuts All Ties With Boy Scouts of America

Mormon Church Cuts All Ties With Boy Scouts of America

FILE – In this July 22, 2013, file photo, Andrew Garrison, 11, of Salt Lake City, looks over the Rockwell exhibition at the Mormon Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah. Twenty-three original, Boy Scout-themed Norman Rockwell paintings were on display in Salt Lake City to celebrate the 100-year relationship between Scouting and the Mormon church. An announcement Tuesday night, May 8,…

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The Boy Scouts Thing

Let me preface this by saying I don’t actually care whether or not the Boy Scouts become co-ed. As a former Girl Scout, it just does not fucking matter. But the absolutely vile discourse that has resulted from it has completely turned my stomach, so here we go.

Here’s the reality of the situation:

The Boy Scouts have had multiple co-ed programs (like Venturing) since the 80’s. It’s not new, folks! And a number of Boy Scout troops have allowed girls to participate in troop meetings and scouting events for years.

The only difference in them allowing girls to join is that they can earn the badges and rank of Eagle Scout when before they couldn’t. That’s it. They have also stated that the troops themselves will not be co-ed, the girls will have to have their own troops. The Girl Scouts also have had co-ed factions for years, although this has not been a focus for them.

In other countries, the scouts were only separated by gender on a shallow, surface level and worked cooperatively. Most already merged together years ago. In the US, we have a sharper divide. I could speculate about this being due to puritanical origins for the Boy Scout’s and the progressive push and reactionary creation of the Girl Scouts instead of them being created together with similar goals. 

Now, all youth programs have experienced a decline in membership in recent years. The Boy Scouts more than most. This was a large influence on their decision to allow girl troops in a last ditch effort to earn back members. The decision is financial, not social for them. They were running out of steam.  While there are a number of reasons for this, a main one for the Boy Scouts has been a general, slow social progress sweeping through our culture.

The Boy Scouts were always linked heavily with conservativism and right wing religious groups/politics, often not allowing participants who didn’t identify as Christians, who refused to follow their strict religious and ethical codes, including things like declaring belief in a Christian God and not being sexually active, etc.

The Boy Scouts’ largest, and first supporter was the Mormon church. They recently pulled out of supporting the Boy Scouts when they finally, in 2013, lifted the ban on gay youth joining the organization, and in 2015 lifted the ban on gay leaders and employees. And very very recently they have said that they will allow trans members into troops. Despite this, they are not friendly towards gay or queer entrants, their president releasing a statement on the ban lift saying: “We must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it would be.” And individual troops can still make the choice not to allow gay leaders. It’s just that the overall ban is lifted. 

The Trail Life scouts were a staunchly conservative, religious, direct reaction to the Boy Scouts lifting their ban on gay entrants and were created the same year that occurred. The Boy Scouts lost many of their most conservative members to them. 

In contrast, the Girl Scouts have always allowed queer women (and you’ll find women in GS are largely queer or gnc) and racially desegregated troops long before the Boy Scouts did. And they have never forced religious doctrine or conservative politics.

The Boy Scouts toe the line of that they want to be, and alienate their members on both sides of the board. If they want to be progressive, they need to take a leaf out of the Girl Scouts’ book. If they want to be hatefully conservative and keep banning queer people, then they can continue as they were, with declining members as people become more accepting. 

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5月22日はガールスカウトの日なんだって♪　バッジ集めに憧れちゃうなあ〜！

Today is Girl Scouts  day in Japan.I admire Girl Scouts!

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Why aren't there more scouts posts!

I need stuff to reblog I don't have TIME TO WRITE CONTENT!!

Get Scouts on this Tumblr map of fandoms and shitposting!

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Polish Boy Scouts returning home in a hurry after learning of the German invasion 1.09.1939

via reddit

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I have 1000 followers!

I hope you have a happy day, some beautiful adventures, and make a change to someone's life!

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Good luck to my unit members competeing in the Chase Walk today! Happy 40 miles and be sure to have packed your snow shoes apparently...

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When your campers don’t want to leave because they “love you” and you’re like

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Camp is my favourite place in the world

and it’s the right one.

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I'm just curious how many of you guys are scouts of any kind. reblog if you are a scout.

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Patsy’s Scouting Bits ‘n’ Bobs

Managed to source some screen accurate closeups of Patsy’s scouting gear after a few hours of extensive trawling through ebay. There’s no high-res close up images of reference so this is the best I could do, still unsure about the badges on her arm. On closer look it seems to be a medical cross surrounded by some leaf designs. I think the upper one is a name/troup tag though. The silver shield on her chest is throwing me too - if anyone knows what they are please let me know!

Yes I’m a nerd but this kinda thing really interests me.

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full picture and clear picture of Dylan’s face.

From left: Dylan, Brooks, and a friend (unknown) in Cub Scouts.

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I was going to request a scouts pride moodboard, but then I thought I might as well just do it myself :) - moodboard by @timeisdoomed

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Polish Boy Scouts returning home in a hurry after learning of the German invasion 1.09.1939

via reddit

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Elizabeth, Duchess of York (later Queen Consort, Queen Mother) receives flowers from a Scout member, Bangor, 1924