From Family Research Council:
The Boy Scouts have been bad-mouthed by celebrities, dropped from sponsorships, evicted from property, and hauled into court–yet not once have they wavered from their mission to build character in America’s sons. Unlike corporate America, the Scouts don’t cave when critics come calling. Even when those critics are Ohio moms who use their sexuality to harass the organization for its standards.
Unfortunately for Jennifer Tyrrell, the biggest victims of her advocacy are her own sons, who have suffered the embarrassment and humiliation of their mothers’ national campaign against the Scouts’ membership criteria. Before she became a Den mother, Jennifer knew the Scouts’ policy on homosexuality–but she signed up anyway. When parents complained about her involvement, the state chapter asked Jennifer to step aside. Now, the Tyrrell family is on a nationwide tour to “get her pack back.”
And the Left has been all too willing to help. From talk shows to award shows, the Tyrrells have used their new platform to paint the Boy Scouts as hate-filled intolerants. The organization is used to the abuse. Seven-year-old Cruz Tyrrell is not. But sadly, he’s the one being exploited to advance an agenda that, in light of the Constitution, is irrelevant. Under the freedom of association, the Tyrrells are more than welcome to form their own group of Diversity Scouts and set their own membership criteria for leaders. What they are not entitled to do is force the Boy Scouts to bend to their ideas of what that membership criteria should be. The BSA won that fight at the Supreme Court 12 years ago.
It would appear that what the Tyrrells ultimately want–and in fact what homosexual activists want–is not the ability to participate in Scouting, but the ability to force others to affirm their lifestyle. That’s a debate the Boy Scouts are not willing to engage, given the age and purpose of their programs. As they explain, “Our focus is on delivering the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training. Our mission does not include teaching young people about sex or sexual orientation, and we do not believe it is Scouting’s role to introduce this topic in our youth development program.” In a world desperate for courageous role models, I can’t think of a better one than an organization that sticks to its principles like this one.
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