SCOUTS' HONOR

PHOTOS: Former Boy Scouts And Their Impact On The World

boy scoutsAs we reported Thursday, the Boy Scouts of America made one small step toward equality when they voted to revise their membership standards to state “no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.” Confirming the gay generational split, polling prior to the vote revealed a majority of BSA’s youth opposed the ban on openly gay people while a majority of adults supported it.

Left unchanged was the ban on gay adult leaders. That means after you make Eagle, the Scout’s highest rank awarded on or after your 18th birthday, you’re done, no leadership role for you, gay scout. That likely spells a court challenge citing equal protection and doom for yesterday’s limited rule change.

But for now we celebrate the boys who can scout if they want to, with a list on the following pages of heroes and leaders that came before them. Congratulations, kids! Dream big.

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Neil Armstrong

Astronaut made a “giant leap for mankind” when he became the first human to set foot on the moon.

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Charles McGee & Percy Sutton

Tuskegee Airmen. McGee (pictured) holds an Air Force record of 409 fighter combat missions flown in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Sutton was a civil right activist and entrepreneur who revitalized the Apollo Theater.

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Michael Bloomberg

A billionaire and the Mayor of New York City, in that order.

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The Professor

One of seven stranded on Gilligan’s Island and Cleveland’s youngest Eagle Scout.

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Alfred Kinsey

The guy who brought us the Kinsey Scale which ranges from 0 to 6 where 0 is exclusively heterosexual and 6 is exclusively homosexual and who didn’t play that game when he was 12 was a hero for shattering sexual stereotypes, particularly for women.

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Rob Corrdry

Waiting to confirm Eagle Scout’s hero status with release of new Arrested Development episodes on Netflix this Sunday.

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Indiana Jones & Steven Spielberg

Both real-life Oscar winner and fictional hero were Eagle Scouts. Coincidence, or conspiracy?

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Gerald Ford

The first and only unelected president declared the “end of our long national nightmare” but then went on to pardon Richard Nixon. But he gave us Betty, so a hero in our book… of heroes.

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Darwin Judge

Judge was a Marine and embassy security guard, one of the last two US servicemen killed in the Vietnam War, a true American hero.

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David Lynch & Dale Cooper

Two Eagle Scouts and another conspiracy, this one in the damp American Northwest. Twin Peaks‘ Cooper (portrayed by Kyle MacLachlan, pictured) a hero for solving Laura Palmer murder and enduring dwarves. Can you earn a badge for pie?

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George Costanza

Hero to the slothful, boy scout mastered the art of baiting of his hook, if not his domain.

 

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Wallace Stegner

The historian, novelist, environmentalist and “dean of Western writers” won a Pulitzer for Fiction in 1972 for Angle of Repose.

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Ross Perot

As a third party candidate for president in 1992, billionaire businessman and Eagle Scout Perot helped Bill Clinton defeat George HW Bush and usher in Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act. Well, maybe not a hero. But colorful and folksy, for sure. (See “giant sucking sound.”)

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Jon Heder

Speaking of voting, “Vote for Pedro!” Eagle Scout Heder’s Napoleon Dynamite a hero to Millenial geeks and outsiders everywhere.

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Manti Te’o

Could be a hero when he finally comes out and becomes first openly gay NFL player.

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