Ah, yes, the wholesome values of the Boy Scouts: a scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, and friendly. His parents, on the other hand, not so much.
At least that’s the case with some truly terrible parents in New Jersey (the Florida of New York). A boy named Joe had been a member of a Boy Scout troupe for about a month when an official called his mother to tell him he was no longer welcome. The cause: some other parents had complained that he wasn’t born with the right set of equipment.
Setting aside these creepy adults’ weird fixation on children’s penises … so what? So what if he once presented as a girl? What exactly is so magically delicious about the Boy Scouts that only boys who were born boys can be members?
Related: Boy Scouts Vote Unanimously To Cool It With All That Homophobia
How about we take this to the next level?
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According to the Boy Scouts, they use a person’s birth certificate to determine whether or not someone is a boy. Obviously that’s dumb: birth certificates can be wrong, and often are for trans people. Correcting them can be difficult and expensive — and it’s likely to get even harder under the incoming Donald administration.
Joe’s parents, on the other hand, deserve a Nobel prize for how well they’re handling this. When he started showing signs of identifying as a boy, they started reading him stories about trans children, and let him cut his hair and transition.
So who exactly raised a fuss? That’s unclear, but the Boy Scout gang that he belonged to is hosted by the Immaculate Conception Church, so it’s probably a safe assumption that this is yet another thing that religion has ruined.
Jack Meoff
This is deplorable. In Australia the Scouts are now coed with boys and girls together in the same troupe. I like to think this would not have been an issue here.
Bob LaBlah
“Joe’s parents, on the other hand, deserve a Nobel prize for how well they’re handling this. When he started showing signs of identifying as a boy, they started reading him stories about trans children, and let him cut his hair and transition.”
No matter how I disagree with this method of child rearing it is their child and they are free to teach her as they see fit. Personally I side with the Boy Scouts decision. The name alone says what it means: Boy Scouts. I only wonder if they did it in hopes of an out-of-court settlement. For some reason I would not be shocked if the parents foresaw a lawsuit in this from the beginning and decided the settlement was worth their child’s social life. Why not try the Girl Scouts since we are talking an eight year old here and see if that could have brought this eight year old CHILD back around to reality?
Baba Booey Fafa Fooey
@Jack Meoff: Agreed. Let the boy in.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
” started showing signs of identifying as a boy”
This ideology woo worries me. “Problematic” to say the least. But regardless, what real harm is there in letting the child stay. None.
kille310
@PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID:
Agreed, in the rest of the world, their is no distinction between boys and girls scouts, having said that, i dont find it troubling if they want to do that, they are free to do so.
” started showing signs of identifying as a boy”
pretty sure this is gonna end badly. If the kid said he wanted to wear trousers and play with toy cars, does it mean is trans?? Where are we going with this kind of thinking ?!
Realitycheck
Law suits, that is the only way we keep on gaining rights for LGBT and how we slowly get new generations used to it.
BiancaPeriod
The FLORIDA of NEW YORK????? OH, Hell to the no, Benji Douglas. (Hold my earrings…)
First of all, NJ is one of the most progressive states in the country and provides protections for sexual minorities that most states, and the federal Constitution do not. Second, we have hugely diverse population full of ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities–much more so than CT or Long Island. Umm, have you been to Asbury Park? Me thinks not, Benji. It’s literally the gayest place on Earth and way better than Fire Island.
LASTLY, and here is the best part, New Jersey was the FIRST state to go up against the discriminatory practices of the Boy Scouts. One of the most studied cases in law school, Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, was a NJ Supreme Ct case where the court here held the Boy Scouts violated NJ public law because they revoked Dale’s membership because of his sexuality. The Supreme Court held differently and awarded the Scouts the right to discriminate based on freedom of association.
In closing, of course this child should be allowed to participate. And religious freedom acts and the persecution of sexual minorities and the LGBT community will likely persist over the next four years…BUT don’t come for New Jersey…we didn’t send for you.
everybodywinsyay
They can create the trans-scouts if they want. It is a private organization who can set its own rules. Get over it and if you can’t, tough. Plus, chances are really really good that the parents of the “trans” kid (who the f*ck knows how long that phase will last?) are using their kid as a pawn which so many on the Left do now with their children. These ill parents think that their children are extensions of the parents extreme beliefs and demands that society act the way they want and that they shouldn’t have to fit society at all. Big entitled parents who are usually harming their children.
everybodywinsyay
@Realitycheck: Lawsuits for Freedom of Association rights, 1st amendment. You can’t make private organizations do what you want them to do. You will lose.
Chris
Boy Scouts just recently started accepting gay boys. Don’t hold your breath waiting for them to accept trans boys….this is another area in which social change might result n the scouts evolving.
NateOcean
I can’t imagine that there’d be any problems with a FTM transgender Eagle Scout sharing a tent with any of the other teenage Eagle Scouts. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
dwes09
A few problems here, an 8 year old is at least two years too young to be allowed to join the Boy Scouts. The age is 11 or 10 if the child is already in 5th grade. Also it is TROOP (like in the army), not troupe like a circus or theater group.
So the kid was likely in the cub scouts, where the children are way pre-puberty and sexual differences would not be an issue.
@everybodywinsyay: Please provide examples, backed by actual links or verifiable facts showing how so many progressive parents use their kids as pawns, and no regressive ones ever do; or be marked as the buffoon you certainly seem to be.
CaliKyle
@PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID: Could not agree with you more. There are a significant minority of well meaning but utterly misguided parents – and doctors – who may be leading kids down a false path to transition. Children who display gender non conforming behavior are quite common; it doesnt usually indicate anything specific about their sexuality or gender identification yet some of these children begin medically transitioning before they are old enough and self aware enough to know if thats what they want to do. Its a frightening and tragic trend.
dwes09
@CaliKyle: ” yet some of these children begin medically transitioning before they are old enough and self aware enough to know if thats what they want to do. Its a frightening and tragic trend.”
No children begin medically transitioning. The only intervention allowed is the administration of puberty delaying drugs until things are sorted out. Prepubescent kids don’t have secondary sexual characteristics to modify medically either through surgery or hormones. They see therapists to determine if it is “a phase” or real.