News on Monday that the Boy Scouts may lift its ban on openly gay scouts and scout leaders immediately divided the country’s massive Scouting community, with some families saying they would yank their sons from troops while others said such a decision could lead them to rejoin.
The issue has weighed heavily for years on the Boy Scouts, one of the country’s largest youth organizations, and just seven months ago it affirmed its policy of banning gay members after studying the issue for two years. But some members and sponsors reacted strongly — including those who said their faith compels them to accept openly gay people — and Monday the group said the national executive board would take up the possibility of lifting the mandatory ban at a regular meeting the first week in February. A vote is likely on Feb. 6.
(Courtesy of the Allen Kalet family) - Hunter Kalat, now 9, right, resigned from his cub scout den in Bethesda over the summer after the Boy Scouts of America reaffirmed their policy barring homosexuals from participating. Also pictured, one of his mothers, Jenny Allen, 44, an advertising and marketing executive, and older brother Jack, now 12, who had earlier left scouting.
With more than 2.6 million boys involved in Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, the impact was felt widely. And intimately.
For Rob Schwarzwalder, whose 15-year-old twins have been in Scouts in Springfield for a decade, the possibility of openly gay troop leaders or troops was maddening and would likely mean the end of an activity that has shaped his sons’ boyhoods.
“There would be a large number of troops who will leave if this goes forward,” said Schwarzwalder of Alexandria. “The Boy Scouts are private; no one is compelled to join it. If [there are] those who feel so strongly about having open homosexuals in Scouting, why not have the moral courage to start their own troops, and not apply pressure to a group that does so much for so many?”
But for Hunter Kalat of Bethesda, the end of the ban could mean his return to Cub Scout Pack 56. The 9-year-old decided last summer to quit after the Scouts reaffirmed the ban, which limited the involvement of his married mothers, Karen Kalat, 43, and Jenny Allen, 44.
On Monday, Hunter said his decision last year was a good one, even though he had been looking forward to a fall camping trip and building a Halloween haunted house with his group.
Karen Kalat said Monday she was “surprised and delighted” by the possibility that the inclusion of open gays and lesbians would be up to each local troop council.
“I think great pressure has been put on them and they have to back off,” she said of the national organization. But she and her wife hadn’t decided Monday if they would let Hunter rejoin.
Patrick Boyle, a Huffington Post blogger on fathering issues and the author of “Scouts’ Honor: Sexual Abuse in America’s Most Trusted Institution,” said the reaffirmation of the ban on gays and lesbians last summer had “a boomerang effect,” drawing renewed attention to the issue. Several big backers — including Intel, UPS and local United Way chapters — dropped their financial support, and a growing number of organizations that sponsor troops openly objected to the ban, he said.
“From the outside it looks like a business decision,” Boyle said. “They had several funders cutting and dropping funding because of the issue and more Scouts and more unit sponsors openly challenging them .
The issue has weighed heavily for years on the Boy Scouts, one of the country’s largest youth organizations, and just seven months ago it affirmed its policy of banning gay members after studying the issue for two years. But some members and sponsors reacted strongly — including those who said their faith compels them to accept openly gay people — and Monday the group said the national executive board would take up the possibility of lifting the mandatory ban at a regular meeting the first week in February. A vote is likely on Feb. 6.
(Courtesy of the Allen Kalet family) - Hunter Kalat, now 9, right, resigned from his cub scout den in Bethesda over the summer after the Boy Scouts of America reaffirmed their policy barring homosexuals from participating. Also pictured, one of his mothers, Jenny Allen, 44, an advertising and marketing executive, and older brother Jack, now 12, who had earlier left scouting.
With more than 2.6 million boys involved in Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, the impact was felt widely. And intimately.
For Rob Schwarzwalder, whose 15-year-old twins have been in Scouts in Springfield for a decade, the possibility of openly gay troop leaders or troops was maddening and would likely mean the end of an activity that has shaped his sons’ boyhoods.
“There would be a large number of troops who will leave if this goes forward,” said Schwarzwalder of Alexandria. “The Boy Scouts are private; no one is compelled to join it. If [there are] those who feel so strongly about having open homosexuals in Scouting, why not have the moral courage to start their own troops, and not apply pressure to a group that does so much for so many?”
But for Hunter Kalat of Bethesda, the end of the ban could mean his return to Cub Scout Pack 56. The 9-year-old decided last summer to quit after the Scouts reaffirmed the ban, which limited the involvement of his married mothers, Karen Kalat, 43, and Jenny Allen, 44.
On Monday, Hunter said his decision last year was a good one, even though he had been looking forward to a fall camping trip and building a Halloween haunted house with his group.
Karen Kalat said Monday she was “surprised and delighted” by the possibility that the inclusion of open gays and lesbians would be up to each local troop council.
“I think great pressure has been put on them and they have to back off,” she said of the national organization. But she and her wife hadn’t decided Monday if they would let Hunter rejoin.
Patrick Boyle, a Huffington Post blogger on fathering issues and the author of “Scouts’ Honor: Sexual Abuse in America’s Most Trusted Institution,” said the reaffirmation of the ban on gays and lesbians last summer had “a boomerang effect,” drawing renewed attention to the issue. Several big backers — including Intel, UPS and local United Way chapters — dropped their financial support, and a growing number of organizations that sponsor troops openly objected to the ban, he said.
“From the outside it looks like a business decision,” Boyle said. “They had several funders cutting and dropping funding because of the issue and more Scouts and more unit sponsors openly challenging them .