SCOUTING EQUALITY

Growing Number Of Families Are Leaving Boy Scouts For Newer, More Inclusive Alternative

Screen shot 2013-04-17 at 4.32.42 PMAfter realizing the Boy Scouts of America’s discriminatory policy banning gays and lesbians wasn’t going to die quickly enough, a number of agitated families across America have started joining Navigators USA—a new organization that “welcomes all people.”

Contrary to the dwindling enrollment numbers reported by BSA since last year, the Navigators have more than doubled their chapters around the nation in the same amount of time, from only 19 in 2012 to the current 45 chapters across 21 states (up to 600 children total).

Children enrolled in Navigators USA enjoy many of the same activities that Boy Scouts do, including camping, farming, hiking, and community service, but instead of promoting a hateful agenda, the “Navigators Moral Compass” promotes a “world free of prejudice and ignorance,” and urges youngsters to “treat people of every race, creed, lifestyle and ability with dignity and respect.”

Though the organization is the brainchild of disgruntled parents, children are the ones deciding to make the switch. “We told our 8-year-old son, Nathan, what we thought of the official BSA rule on excluding gays,” says Bryan Freed, a father whose family recently joined a Navigators chapter in Losa Altos, CA, “and we let him decide.”

The Navigators are also helping to combat the anti-gay agenda by educating youngsters on LGBT issues in an age-appropriate manner.

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