Jon Langbert, a Dallas-area dad, won’t be able to serve as a leader of Pack 70, his son’s Cub Scout group, because he’s a homo.
For the last two years Jon Langbert has organized a popcorn fundraiser for Pack 70 at University Park Elementary. Then at a September Scout meeting, someone complained about his homosexuality, Langbert said. He said he was told this week that he can’t wear the Scout leader shirt he was given last year and that he cannot serve in a leadership position because of his sexual orientation. “What message does that send to my son? It says I’m a second-class citizen,” Langbert said.
Hey, but great news: He can still serve as the help!
Robert McTaggart, the Cubmaster for Pack 70, said Langbert will be allowed to continue as a popcorn fundraiser. That position is not considered a leadership role and can be held by a volunteer.
Of course Langbert should’ve seen this coming: Like the Boy Scouts of America, Cub Scouts prohibit gays from serving in leadership positions. Which means Langbert won’t be able to adopt a The Jungle Book name (as is tradition for Cub Scout leaders). On the plus side, if he pulls his son out of the Scouts now, there’s a great chance he won’t be molested in a few years.
Rainfish
The Cub and Boy Scouts of the Fourth Reich (aka – The un-United States of America)…
The Boy Scouts of America (and Cub Scouts) — sounds innocent enough doesn’t it? But ever since extremist American Talibanesque despots among “christian” fundamentalists in the US assumed absolute theocratic control over the Boy & Cub Scouts of America, the organization has become nothing more than just another child-exploiting political tool for the Radical Right.
The BSA/CSA are now so poisonously polarized that it should be forced to register as a political lobby group in Washington D.C. . And the official capital hill response, encouraged by legions of Republican loons, does nothing but help further the politicalization of religion and foment the religiosity of social organizations. The GOP finds this a useful fig leaf behind which to aggravate petty group prejudices, while completely perverting what was formerly a worthwhile and inclusive institution for young adults. But, sad to say, even members of my own Democratic Party in Congress, not long ago, voted overwhelming for a resolution which lauded the virtues of an organization that is now the embodiment of contemporary bigotry.
When I was a boy, forty-some years ago, I remembered how the CSA/BSA provided a great opportunity for children, of all backgrounds and races, to get together in a non-judgmental climate with the sole purpose of just fostering friendship, cooperation and camaraderie. And even though many kids lived in segregated neighborhoods in the 60’s, like where I grew up, the CSA/BSA provided a welcoming conduit for diversity that was unprecedented for the time. Their involvement in after-school programs was simply to bring kids together with the goal of teaching them how to work and play as a group in a respectful color-blind and religion-blind manner, with an eye only on developing some cool outdoor skills; having fun together, and learning how to be responsible members of the community.
But in recent years the leadership has demonstrated that they have more in common with the Ku Klux Klan than with the former Cub and Boy Scouts of America. The CSA/BSA as organizations, I might add, used to be apolitical and progressive on social issues. Ironically, the Girls Scouts of America does not have similar bans on fellow Gays and Lesbians, or Atheist and Agnostic American families who wish for their children, as well as themselves as parents, to participate in the GSA youth organization.
Director Steven Spielberg, to his credit, withdrew his sponsorship, along with a huge financial donation, from the BSA. Spielberg claimed that, at one time, the BSA was very important influence in his adolescent development, but now it has evolved into something quite different. Point-in-fact, several years ago, in a New Jersey case, the US Supreme Court ruled that the BSA, being a private organization (like the KKK), could indeed discriminate in its membership requirements. In other words, now it is perfectly legal to compel BSA kids and adult members to swear an official oath to heterosexual-only coitus and then require that they also profess an official organizationally mandated belief in a High Sky Father — that is, if they want to be Scouts.
Of course, the BSA is more subtle than that, using such ambiguous phraseology as: “(I pledge to be) …morally “straight”. Of course, “straight”, the operative word here, was NOT used as a colloquialism to denote a heterosexual at the time the oath was written. But then the BSA officials now interpret “morally straight” as some kind of semantically twisted justification for rejecting at least ten per cent of the human race.
And then there is the phrase “duty to god”, which appears on the second line of the oath which the oath-taker mechanically delivers in rote allegiances to, for example, a “god” and country, etc.. The type of “god” is not identified by his/her/its name or religious affiliation in the oath. It could be the Hindu Elephant-headed, multi-armed god, Ganesha, which is perfectly legitimate of course, or the Egyptian cat goddess, Bast – to whom I sometimes pray after I see an occasional mouse in my home. But to be fair to the Boy Scouts of America, adherents of the church of Satan should also feel welcomed with open arms as well as any other god-cult, because, as the BSA has proudly and officially proclaimed, they do not discriminate against anyone who, at the very least, believes in some kind of “Deity”.
So, there you have it, when the BSA is not busy bashing gays, they are purging their membership of Atheists for rejecting the supernatural and for clinging to their very unpopular atheistic rational ways. Hell, the BSA even kicks out harmless little Agnostics whose only “sin” is that they still hold out hope that there might be a god, but they’re just not quite ready to commit yet and run out to buy a pair of Sunday shoes.
So, take heart, if you or a member of your family are devoted followers of the Indian thug-gee death cult of Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction, you just might be Cub Scout, Boy Scout or Republican material.
—————————-
And you can even check for yourself to verify your eligibility at the official BSA web site: http://www.bsalegal.org/morally-straight-cases-225.asp
? Employment:
“With respect to positions limited to professional Scouters or, because of their close relationship to the mission of Scouting, positions limited to registered members of the Boy Scouts of America, acceptance of the Declaration of Religious Principle, the Scout Oath, and the Scout Law is required. Accordingly, in the exercise of its constitutional right to bring the values of Scouting to youth members, Boy Scouts of America will not employ atheists, agnostics, known or avowed homosexuals, or others as professional Scouters or in other capacities in which such employment would tend to interfere with its mission of reinforcing the values of the Scout Oath and the Scout Law in young people.”
———————————
By the way, I am perplexed — you know, me being an “avowed homosexual” and all that — why can’t I recall what oath I took at my “Gay” initiation and what exactly were the words to my vows? Although, I think I can still remember our secret hand-shake, and I believe someone bought me dinner afterwards so we could discus how we were going to take over America and force everybody to buy Prada shoes. But the rest is kind of foggy.
Nevertheless, the bottom line is this — “who cares?”.
I don’t have a problem with people exercising their “associative freedoms”, including the CSA/BSA and their deluded cult followers. Let them have their little Mickey Mouse Club. I personally would not want Fred Phelps or Pat Robertson to join in my parade – unless they took that aforementioned secret “vow” to serve our homosexual deity — I think His name is Bruce.
But a line in the sand must be drawn when the CSA/BSA’s cabal proceeds to impose their officially sanctioned cult status on public school children during class time, as well as demanding freebees at tax-payers’ expense (including panhandling from Gay, Atheist, Agnostic tax-payers, I might add). Yes, freeloading and all the while posing as some ersatz public non-profit charitable organization that is selfless at its core and without prejudice; working for the community’s welfare and the greater good of all. Yep, that makes the “BS” in Boy Scouts take on a quite different connotation..
I figure that if you, the CSA/BSA, have sent out personally engraved invitations for your “private” party to just “your” personal friends, then don’t expect all of us who weren’t invited to pick up the bill. Gay and Atheist and Agnostic families should not have to pay others to discriminate against them; they should not be compelled to reward bigotry by subsidizing a “private” (which the BSA won the legal right to be called), closed-membership, ideologically-polarized club with public funds derived from an entire community’s compulsory tax contribution to local, state and federal government agencies. If they want to remain a private, closed membership club then it is simple — let them find private sources to sponge-off from in order to promote their un-democratic, unChristian, and immoral ideals of intolerance and group-hate.
Fortunately, when many enlightened communities saw that the BSA legally fought for and won the right to conduct themselves, not as a public youth organization, but as a private religious/socio/political cult, then quite a number of large municipalities withdrew public tax-funded support for the BSA. Which is a good thing and a courageously principled stand to take. Who wants to see their hard-earned dollars go an organization which promotes hate and intolerance for any group by officially banning them? What kind of irresponsible and asocial role-models do they provide for our children by advocating prejudice and discrimination as an accepted part of citizenry?
So, if the CSA/BSA want to act like some “exclusive” Country Club throwback from the 1950’s — which, in that era, many did not admit Jews or Blacks because they too were not the “right” kind of people — then let them. But, it must be made very clear, the CSA/BSA should not expect public dollars to subsidized their own version of a segregated private club that won`t admit gay teenagers and gay scout leaders, or those other families who refuse to profess a belief in the supernatural. Seems reasonable doesn’t it?
Well, regrettably, in the real world, what does reason have anything even remotely to do with Right Wing politics, religion or bigotry? Nothing, of course, is the answer. But just remember that if we forget to stay vigilant and if we abandon our constitutional responsibilities as citizens by neglecting to separate politics and religion from one another, then the inevitable result will be unending civil strife; perpetual bigotry, and an indelible stain in history left upon our country.
Like racism, socio//political expressions of homophobia are no less shameful and harmful to a significant segment of our society. Yet who today would advocate changing our Constitution to promote racism or lend public support to any organization, especially to a youth club, which promotes racism? Perhaps, if the Right Wing keeps it’s strangle-hold on the conscience of America, that might be next. In the meanwhile, if the “Generic Deity-worshipping”, “Heterosexuals-only” Boy Scouts “of just a Demographically Approved portion” of America wants to go it alone, then, as I said before, let them. Actually, they’ve become nothing more than just the Republican/Teabagger Party’s own pet version of The Third Reich’s Hitler Youth Corp anyway — and look at the pontiff that created. In the near future, who knows, perhaps proof of “pure” Aryan ancestry might be the Cub Scouts and the Boy Scouts of America’s next qualifier for membership.
It’s so sad that both the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of America have devolved into child-exploiting and hate-indoctrinating versions of a modern American Klan. Such a pity.
(c) Bud Evans, 2010
James
I remember hearing about Jon Langbert before. Several years ago, he moved from NYC to Dallas with his three young children who he conceived through IVF and carried via a surrogate. Jon & his family moved to University Park, a really wealthy (& very traditional & Republican) suburb of Dallas.
A local journalist & neighbor, Merritt Patterson, wrote a really nice column in the local paper about him a couple years ago. I found a copy of the article. I thought it was nice —
http://www.scribd.com/doc/39400968/10-05-06-Jon-Langbert-Column
James
Merritt Patterson also mentioned what happened w/ Jon Langbert and the Cub Scouts on her blog for the “Park Cities People” newspaper in Dallas, with a lot of comments (50) from local (mostly straight) people —
http://www.parkcitiespeople.com/2010/10/15/university-park-father-gets-booted-as-popcorn-sales-volunteer/
j
@James: The response this has got is really heartening. Faith in humanity? Plus one. Let’s just hope that the BSA listens, although I doubt they will. Actually, scrap that. FVck what the BSA thinks. The don’t deserve a volunteer like Jon.
Matt
I’m surprised that this guy was “shocked” by the Scout’s well documented anti-gay bias. It’s like being stunned that fire burns.
Dave
The real shocker here is that a gay dad would even want to subject his kid to the Boy Scout’s bullshit. As a former gay boy scout, I feel sorry for his son. If schools are hotbeds of intolerance and bullying, then the scouts are the same thing at double strength.
ewe
I would not have supported the Hitler Youth either.
Silver
Not all Scout troops are cut from the same bigoted cloth…but a lot of them are. As a gay Eagle Scout, I’ve met more than my share of assholes in the system. I wouldn’t put my kids through it.
Lukas P.
So much of the anti-gay bias of BSA comes from two flawed assumptions:
1. Gays recruit because we cannot reproduce
2. Gay men are more likely to be ped.oph.iles than str8 men.
Both assumptions are false.
Parents’ greatest, usually unspoken fear is that homosexuality is somehow “contag.ious”, and that their offspring are somehow in danger if they are within 1 mile of “one of us”.
It was good to read so many supportive & rational commen.ts in the second article linked to by James above. [Thanks James!]
greenmanTN
I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for the Boy Scouts to change. While the BSA is nominally a secular, or at least non-denominational organization, the truth of the matter is that much of their funding comes from the Mormon and Catholic churches. In some Boy Scout troops award official BSA merit badges for performing services for the local Mormon ward or Bishopric. (And nobody puts the “prick” in Bishopric better than Mormons & Catholics.)
For now the best we can do is make sure the BSA is denied public money and accommodations based on their biases.
Aside from that, this is another instance where we’ve allowed the debate to be defined by our Right-Wing opponents. (IMO there are parallels with the Gays In The Military issue.) Nearly every article about Gays and the Boy Scouts eventually becomes about letting adult gay men IN as troop leaders, when the real issue is about not kicking gay youth OUT for no reason other than their sexuality. All paranoia and misinformation about gay men as pedophiles aside, it’s really not about the Scoutmasters at all.
The real issue is that the BSA starts recruiting boys for the Cub Scouts at elementary school age, before they’re aware of their sexual identity. Some of those Cub Scouts will stick with it and become Boy Scouts but also later discover they are gay. At that point, no matter how closely they follow the various BSA rules and creeds, how many Merit Badges they earn, or whether they achieve Eagle Scout status, those boys will be kicked out for merely being gay and that’s blatant discrimination.
Matt
The question is why would this guy knowingly enlist his child in a group that he knows discriminates against gays?
It’s no secret that he Boy Scouts do not allow gay members. This guy has no problem with his kid being part of a discriminatory organization. Would he enroll his kid in an institution that discriminated against Jews, Asians, etc.? That is what he did.
Let’s cut the crap here. Langbert could have found an alternative, non-discriminatory group for his son. What will his son say in a few years when a friend in his Scout troop comes out as gay and is forced to quit? Will he just accept it and continue as a Scout?
Phil Boyd
Don’t let anyone ever fool you into thinking that Dallas is a gay friendly city. For such a large city, they have the mindset of some fucking hick town in Georgia. It is owned and operated by the hypocritical religious nuts who keep every glory hole in town in business.
jon
I’m a gay Eagle Scout and I love scouting and still volunteer. Just hate when 4 Eagle Scouts I know shouldn’t be Eagle Scouts for a lack of God Loving or being gay. Mormon Church drives the scouting policies just so ya know.
Rainfish
When I was a boy, forty-some years ago, I remembered how the CSA/BSA provided a great opportunity for children, of all backgrounds and races, to get together in a non-judgmental climate with the sole purpose of just fostering friendship, cooperation and camaraderie. And even though many kids lived in segregated neighborhoods in the 60’s, like where I grew up, the CSA/BSA provided a welcoming conduit for diversity that was unprecedented for the time. Their involvement in after-school programs was simply to bring kids together with the goal of teaching them how to work and play as a group in a respectful color-blind and religion-blind manner, with an eye only on developing some cool outdoor skills; having fun together, and learning how to be responsible members of the community.
But in recent years the leadership has demonstrated that they have more in common with the Ku Klux Klan than with the former Cub and Boy Scouts of America. The CSA/BSA as organizations, I might add, used to be apolitical and progressive on social issues. Ironically, the Girls Scouts of America does not have similar bans on fellow Gays and Lesbians, or Atheist and Agnostic American families who wish for their children, as well as themselves as parents, to participate in the GSA youth organization.
Director Steven Spielberg, to his credit, withdrew his sponsorship, along with a huge financial donation, from the BSA. Spielberg claimed that, at one time, the BSA was very important influence in his adolescent development, but now it has evolved into something quite different. Point-in-fact, several years ago, in a New Jersey case, the US Supreme Court ruled that the BSA, being a private organization (like the KKK), could indeed discriminate in its membership requirements. In other words, now it is perfectly legal to compel BSA kids and adult members to swear an official oath to heterosexual-only coitus and then require that they also profess an official organizationally mandated belief in a High Sky Father — that is, if they want to be Scouts.
Of course, the BSA is more subtle than that, using such ambiguous phraseology as: “(I pledge to be) …morally “straight”. Of course, “straight”, the operative word here, was NOT used as a colloquialism to denote a heterosexual at the time the oath was written. But then the BSA officials now interpret “morally straight” as some kind of semantically twisted justification for rejecting at least ten per cent of the human race.
And then there is the phrase “duty to god”, which appears on the second line of the oath which the oath-taker mechanically delivers in rote allegiances to, for example, a “god” and country, etc.. The type of “god” is not identified by his/her/its name or religious affiliation in the oath. It could be the Hindu Elephant-headed, multi-armed god, Ganesha, which is perfectly legitimate of course, or the Egyptian cat goddess, Bast – to whom I sometimes pray after I see an occasional mouse in my home. But to be fair to the Boy Scouts of America, adherents of the church of Satan should also feel welcomed with open arms as well as any other god-cult, because, as the BSA has proudly and officially proclaimed, they do not discriminate against anyone who, at the very least, believes in some kind of “Deity”.
So, there you have it, when the BSA is not busy bashing gays, they are purging their membership of Atheists for rejecting the supernatural and for clinging to their very unpopular atheistic rational ways. Hell, the BSA even kicks out harmless little Agnostics whose only “sin” is that they still hold out hope that there might be a god, but they’re just not quite ready to commit yet and run out to buy a pair of Sunday shoes.
So, take heart, if you or a member of your family are devoted followers of the Indian thug-gee death cult of Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction, you just might be Cub Scout, Boy Scout or Republican material.
~ cont’d at:
http://rainfish2000.blogspot.com
[img]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jCT9n9hItmA/TLxKWvFsDfI/AAAAAAAAAdk/Ja8xMl4IThM/s1600/The-new-face-of-the-BSA-CSA.jpg[/img]
tallskin2
Intrigued I did a quick online search for the policy of the Scouting Association here in the UK. Since, as you know, the damned Brits invented scouting in the early 20th Century.
And their online guidance says:
It’s OK to be an adult in Scouting and be gay!
Throughout the Association there are adults in Scouting who are gay, lesbian or bisexual. Some are open about their sexual orientation others not, either way it is a personal choice which is totally acceptable.
A leader’s sexual orientation has no bearing on their suitability to fulfil a role in Scouting. Whatever role an adult chooses to take in Scouting, they must always act in accordance with the Associations Policies and Rules.
Appointments sub-committees must implement the Equal Opportunities policy in accordance with Policy Organisation and Rules.
Equal Opportunities Policy
The Scout Association has, for many years, had an Equal Opportunities Policy. This policy sets out the Scout Association’s view on such matters including the acceptance and support of being gay and having an adult role in Scouting.
“There is no basis on which any volunteer offering his or her services in any capacity can be refused an appointment in, or Membership of, the Movement on the grounds of heterosexual or homosexual orientation. Homosexuality has been perceived as incompatible with Scouting by some people (both within and outside The Scout Association) on the basis of a presumed link between homosexuality and paedophilia. This perception has been used to deny homosexual people the chance to work with young people as Scout Leaders. There is no link between homosexuality and paedophilia, and therefore there is no justification for restricting Membership on this basis.”
The Scout Association guidelines are clear, non- negotiable and support individual members regardless of their sexual orientation.
Attention should be drawn to the Child Protection yellow card where is makes it clear that a sexual relationship between an adult leader in position of authority and a youth member is unacceptable.