In recent years, Boys Scouts Of America (BSA) has made long-overdue strides toward becoming a more inclusive organization, officially welcoming gay youth into their programs in 2014, male-identifying trans youth in 2017, and, a year later, announcing it would allow girls to take part in the Cub Scouts, too.
But those small steps of progress can’t even begin to make up for the years and years of hateful rhetoric, exclusion, and other controversies that have mired the organization over the past century. In fact, in 2020, the BSA had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid thousands of child sex abuse claims—many of which had been previously swept under the rug by officials.
Related: A Timeline Of The Boy Scouts’ History Of Discrimination—Plus A Few Items They Forgot
Now, a bracing new documentary sheds further light on the BSA’s history of child sexual abuse, and its efforts to cover up those allegations against various Scout leaders.
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Boys Scout’s Honor frames its chilling exposé around the story of former Scout, Aaron Averhart. As Averhart recounts, he was only 8 years old when he first met Boy Scout leader, William (Bill) Sheehan. At the time, Averhart was just shy of making the move up from Cub Scout to Boy Scout, and Sheehan helped him move through the ranks.
Averhart only gradually became aware of the fact that he was being “groomed” by Sheehan, and now looks back on those years with a stark clarity, and with wholly justifiable fear and frustration.
His recollections dovetail with Boys Scout’s Honor‘s broader revelations that, since the 1920s, the BSA has been keeping files on dangerous pedophiles in their ranks—and literally locking those files away. After decades of thinking he was alone, Averhart’s research into his harrowing past led him to uncovering of dozens other victims, just like him, in a town 1,500 miles away.
Directed by Ash Patino (PTSD: The Walking Wounded), the documentary tells its shocking story through first-hand accounts and expert commentary, unraveling a true-crime narrative with nationwide implications.
Boys Scout’s Honor will be available on VOD/digital platforms beginning December 13. Watch the trailer below…
abfab
Everything is SHOCKING to you people. Are there those who are actually shocked by this?
thebaddestbabby
yeah, gotta say there’s something distasteful about the way these documentaries are marketed but also even just the fact that so many get made? We all know about the boy scouts and sexual abuse. the pretense that these filmmakers are doing a social good is pretty flimsy. really, it’s just about making money off the suffering of other people. but I guess that is what we do best in this country (see: the health care industry)
bachy
I still don’t understand why girls should be included in the Boy Scouts. I thought the Girl Scouts is designed to accommodate girls…?
Why should it be illegal for an organization to focus on the needs and issues and education of one sex only? I don’t get it.
thebaddestbabby
is it in fact illegal for an organization to focus on the needs and issues and education of one sex (gender?) only? or did you just make up something to get mad at?
bachy
I’m not certain as to how it works, but I thought that laws against sexual discrimination is why girls must be allowed to join the Boy Scouts organization?
abfab
After one week in the scouts I begged my father to let me quit. They wanted me to build shit. SO I joined the boys in the band and the freeks in the chorus. Praise Jesus!