Boy Scouts To Admit Transgender Members
Another major change for the Boy Scouts.
Earlier this week, the Boy Scouts of America announced that it would reverse policy and allow transgender boys to join the organization:
Reversing its stance of more than a century, the Boy Scouts of America said on Monday that the group would begin accepting members based on the gender listed on their application, paving the way for transgender boys to join the organization.
“For more than 100 years, the Boy Scouts of America, along with schools, youth sports and other youth organizations, have ultimately deferred to the information on an individual’s birth certificate to determine eligibility for our single-gender programs,” the group said in a statement on its website. “However, that approach is no longer sufficient as communities and state laws are interpreting gender identity differently, and these laws vary widely from state to state.”
The announcement, reported on Monday night by The Associated Press, reverses a policy that drew controversy late last year when a transgender boy in New Jersey was kicked out of the organization about a month after joining.
“After weeks of significant conversations at all levels of our organization, we realized that referring to birth certificates as the reference point is no longer sufficient,” Michael Surbaugh, the Scouts’ chief executive, said in a recorded statement on Monday.
The announcement came amid a national debate over transgender rights, with cities and states across the nation struggling with whether and how to regulate gender identity in the workplace, in restrooms and at schools.
In recent years, the Boy Scouts of America has expanded rights for gay people. In 2013, the group ended its ban on openly gay youths participating in its activities. Two years later, the organization ended its ban on openly gay adult leaders.
Advocates for gay and transgender people who had pushed for changes in Boy Scouts’ policy praised Monday’s announcement.
“From our perspective, they clearly did the right thing,” said Zach Wahls, who co-founded Scouts for Equality, a nonprofit group that advocates for stronger protections in the organization for gays and transgender people. “My team and I knew that they were considering a policy change, but we are both heartened and surprised by how quickly they moved to change the situation.”
Last year, in response to parent complaints, the Boy Scouts of America removed an 8-year-old transgender boy from the Secaucus, N.J., Cub Scout pack he had joined just about a month earlier, according to The Record, a newspaper in northern New Jersey.
“It made me mad,” Joe Maldonado, the boy, told the newspaper. “I had a sad face, but I wasn’t crying. I’m way more angry than sad. My identity is a boy. If I was them, I would let every person in the world go in. It’s right to do.”
Joe’s case may have been the first in which a transgender boy was ejected from the program, Mr. Wahls, a former Eagle Scout, said.
As the linked article notes, this move comes less than two years after the organization voted to allow openly gay members and Scout leaders after a debate that had been going on for years among the organization’s leader and advocates on both side of the issue, which included both current and former Scouts and leaders, sponsors of Scout Troops, and private citizens unaffiliated with either group who had some stake in the culture war battle that has been going on for the better part of a decade. For a long time, the Boy Scouts resisted allowing openly gay members or leaders and even took the matter all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the right of a private organization such as the BSA to exclude members on the basis of sexual orientation. Since then, of course, societal attitudes regarding gays and lesbians have changed significantly to the point where, as the President of the organization admitted two years ago, the Boy Scout’s position on gay rights was out of date and needed to be changed. The same determination was apparently made in this case. While there remains much confusion and
I will readily admit that this is an area where my views have only recently begun to, for lack of a better term, evolve. For several reasons that I think should be obvious, including the fact that it’s not exactly common for the average American to come into contact with someone who is transgender never mind have a close relationship with them, understanding what people who consider themselves transgender is not easy, and it becomes even more complicated when we are talking about children, many of whom are still a long way off from puberty and the point at which children generally become more aware of and interested in issues involving sexuality and gender. Additionally, the question of how to handle a very young child who insists on behaving as a member of a gender other than the one that they are. There remains much confusion and misunderstanding when it comes to issues involving transgender issues, and that uncertainty is amplified when it comes to children. Many would argue, for example, that children who claim to be a different gender are lacking in understanding of what’s really going on with their bodies and their lives and that, rather than encouraging them by letting them make life-altering decisions at such a young age, parents and authorities should be counseling them to determine if they are possibly just going through a phase that will change over time. As I’ve said before, I don’t pretend to know the answers to these questions whether they are applied to adults or children, that is a question best left to professionals in mental health and child development.
All of this comes, of course, at a time when the debate over transgender rights is coming to the fore in a way that it never has in the past. In addition to private organizations such as the Boy Scouts, public schools are struggling with the issue of how to accommodate students who identify as transgender when it comes to issues such as access to bathrooms and locker rooms. Red and blue states alike are considering bills that either restrict the ability of local governments to regulate bathroom access by transgender adults and children, and cases involving access to such facilities are pending at all levels of the Federal Judiciary, including the Supreme Court of the United States. No doubt, this debate will expand in the coming years.
As for the BSA’s action this week, since they are a private organization this is entirely their decision as is the decision that any individual member or sponsor may make in response to it. Personally, I am fine with the decision notwithstanding the confusion it may cause initially. At the very least, it will provide an opportunity for education and for people to get to know people who are transgender rather than forcing those people to hide their identity for fear of harassment and mistreatment. As I’ve said before, while I don’t completely understand the issues surrounding being transgender I do know one thing. These people are fellow human beings and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect not ostracized and treated as deviants as social conservatives would do. In the end, if they truly believe that this is how they were meant to live their lives then it really does me no harm, nor does it do any harm to anyone else. If we lived our lives by this ideal, then perhaps we wouldn’t have as many problems as we do.
Photo via Reuters and The New York Times
And of course, Rod Dreher over at TAC has been in a fit of hysteria……
I wonder what he is going to do when he holds his beloved Benedict Option and no one shows up?
Yes, Rod Dreher has a cow. Dog bites man.
The ducks have long since left the barn. Add your favorite barnyard reference below…
@grumpy realist:
When isn’t Rod Dreher in a fit of hysteria?
I’ve never understood the point of gendered scout group in the modern age. The point is to teach important skills, good citizenship, respect, honor, teamwork and overall human decency right? How does learning to tie a knot require a single gender group? I’m pretty sure the person needing CPR doesn’t stop to check if you were in the appropriate group when you got your knowledge. Even if there was something specific that required boys vs girls, can’t they be temporarily segregated for that task and reincorporated back into a cohesive whole?
I get its history and why it was the way it was. Since there’s really no practical reason, however, we keep doing these things for traditions’ sake. Let the kids learn if they want in the group they want – the desire to be a Scout is supposed to be a good thing.
In related news, Trump said he wouldn’t touch Obama’s executive order on LGBT discrimination. So good news on two fronts (modulo later developments from the Trumpaloos).
Glad to see the BSA keeping up with the times. Amazing that an organization frequently affiliated with religion is now more progressive than numerous state and local governments.
@Hal_10000:
He’s very strong on the LGBT’s. And he’s very strong on the blacks. He’s always had a great relationship with the blacks. And the LGBT’s. The gays are tremendous.
@Hal_10000: The organization had some changes in the upper leadership. I think Robert Gates has something to do with it.
Of course this leaves atheists and agnostics as the more despised demographic.
Nailed the tone perfectly, DOBD! Kudos.
It looks like this Dreher guy, whoever he is, has gotten into quite a few heads around here. Must be a lot of empty space……..
@Hal_10000:
It would be a good point about Trump not touching Obama’s EO. But, unfortunately, you can’t trust Trump to stick to anything, since he has no solid convictions other than his own self-aggrandizement. Remember last summer when he changed his mind three times in the course of one afternoon about abortion? Between lunch and the cocktail hour he said that a) women who had abortions should be punished, b) that those who performed abortions should be punished rather than the women seeking them, and, finally, c) that the laws should be left the way they were.
I’m sure Trump doesn’t give a damn about abortion one way or the other, but the fact that he could come up with three different positions, publicly stated, over the course of three hours argues that he simply says what he thinks (momentarily) his fan club wants to hear, or that he says whatever the last person who spoke to him told him to say.
@CSK:
Plus, Trump signed a gag order that exceeded that of previous Administration. So, yeah I see your point.
@Guarneri: Well, Dreher is one of the more well-known writers on the social conservative side, and he definitely is more consistent in his ethical stances than Rich “twinkle” Lowry. It’s just that Rod’s enshrinement of Platonic ideals crashes into reality every now and then, which causes him to freak out, because The World Shouldn’t Work That Way. It’s quite entertaining.
He’s like someone who grew up on Newtonian physics suddenly being confronted with quantum effects.
@KM: The point is this country was started on Christian principles so this is why so much backlash as we move away from GOD and to or own ways. To each their own. There is only one Truth. I give you a quote from The American Minute:
Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a radio greeting to the Boy Scouts, February 7, 1938:
“ON THIS 28TH birthday of the Boy Scouts of America we should be especially thankful for a youth movement which seeks merely to preserve such simple fundamentals as physical strength, mental alertness and moral straightness.”
Our beliefs have changed over just a few decades. GOD has never changed nor will He.
@Daryl’s other brother Darryl:
Don’t forget the Muslim-Americans. Back in September 2015 he said they were “great people,” and he’d have “no problem” with Muslim-Americans in his cabinet.
I’m sure he probably forgot what he said as soon as the words fell from his lips.
This decision is not binding on the individual troops and dens. Most scout leaders have said that this was never a problem anyway.
@Hal_10000:
I never really bought that Trump was a homophobe and always thought he wouldn’t really go along with any anti-LGBT stuff. So good on him.
That said, my Mom’s wife is retiring from federal service this spring and she couldn’t be happier.
As for my views on transgendered kids, my views have been “evolving.” I used to think transitioning was too large a decision for an immature mind, but now I think it’s actually better if someone with gender dysphoria transitions young. They’ll have a more unified personality and a more solid identity.
@James Pearce: the problem is that roughly 50% of kids who think they’re transsexual end up deciding they aren’t. (They usually end up deciding they’re gay IIRC.). I’m wondering if we could handle this better if we were more attentive to gender confusion and not push transsexuality as the solution quite so much. My suspicion is that the number of kids who actually are intersex is quite low, and kids are confusing a distaste for gender roles coupled with a same-sex attraction as proof that they need to transition to being the other sex.
@Ron Burdick Jr: yes, your wonderful Christian ancestors cheerfully distributed smallpox-infected blankets among the Amerindians, rejoicing that “God was destroying the heathen.”
@Ron Burdick Jr:
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg…
… Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned… What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia
Jefferson goes on to note that the establishment of religion stymies progress and that New York and Pennsylvania both “flourished” without an established religion.
Sorry, Ron, but Jefferson had no need for your version of sharia law. and neither do the rest of us. But for a few details, you would probably be happier in Saudi Arabia.
@James Pearce:
My concern with Trump on LGBT issues was not active bigotry but apathy. While we won’t see expanded protection of LGBTs in matters regarding employment discrimination, it’s good to know that Mike Pence was in effect told to pound sand concerning any possible reversals of Obama’s federal employment guidelines in that area.
@Ron Burdick Jr :
And that doesn’t answer my question at all. I asked why in a group that teaches things like how to start a fire from scratch, cooking, basic civic responsibilities, etc needs to be gender segregated and you start ranting about God. Unless you are arguing that the Lord requires everyone in the group to have the same genitalia in order to be taught knots, there’s nothing inherently religious about the Scouts’ activities other then they were founded by Christians. So simple question: is this a religious group or not? You act like they are a church group when they are loosely affiliated at best (mostly just to use the church in questions’ resources). Can you tell me what denomination the Scouts fall under by any chance?
The Scouts are a good idea in that all children can learn valuable lessons from them. I just think its a waste of resources to have two separate structures that can easily be combined into one. Duplication of services is never efficient. One group, one set of rules and society benefits from our youth learning how to be better and more self-sufficient people. We all win.
@KM:
I’ve always felt it’s an idea that is best suited to destroying the “locker room” talk culture we heard most recently from Mr. Trump. A strong scout leader can cleverly leverage a boys-only environment to instill respect for women.
When it’s just the boys around, and we’re still respectful, then it becomes uncool other times.
On a side note, if the BSA keeps this trend up, and extends their tolerance to atheists, I may well stop regretting my own time as a scout, as well as having introduced my son to scouting so many years ago.
Good post, Doug. And I’m impressed by the BSA’s evolution over the past few years.
I sort of wish my boys were in Scouts, but there’s only so many activities one can schedule.
@Ron Burdick Jr:
Nope.
In addition to TJ’s statement Pch101: quoted above, here is the Founders stating official US policy in the Treaty of Tripoli:
emphasis added.
President Washington initiated the negotiations and they were finished in 1796. It was submitted to the Senate in May 1797 by the new President John Adams and the Senate ratified it UNANIMOUSLY in June.
More to the point, name a single “Christian principle” that this country was founded on. Something unique to Christianity. You can’t.
@SKI:
Morocco was the first country to formally recognize the United States.
@Ron Burdick Jr:
Yup…still an infinitely old, infinitely powerful, totally omnipresent and omniscient being, for which there is absolutely zero proof.
But I can tell you that, if there is a god, she is a Her.
@Daryl’s other brother Darryl: Yes, plus it’s quite amazing how God’s Will always happens to somehow magically coincide with the desires of the speaker….
@KM: And there are more opportunities for me to buy cookies–especially if the boys and girls sell them at different seasons!
Where I live, Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts isn’t very big at all. I suspect that this is why (beyond the small numbers of people with gender dysphoria to begin with) James Pierce reports many scout leaders not expecting to have to deal with transgender issues. I wasn’t a scout, but I don’t think that losing these kinds of organizations will be good for the society.
@grumpy realist: How did you know that I grew up in that family? That’s amazing!
@grumpy realist:
Indeed.
“You can safely assume you’ve created G-d in your own image when it turns out he hates all the same people you do.” – Anne Lamott
“A solution in search of a problem”
@Grumpy Realist: do you have any data on that 50% number? I don’t think there have been studies that are entirely reputable or definitive — how do you begin to control for the selection bias when half the country won’t speak of it, and half of the rest would much rather not?
As far as transitioning goes, I think it makes sense to postpone anything irreversible as long as practical — techniques are improving rapidly, if nothing else. But I’ll confess to being quite transphobic — in the squeamish definition, rather than the “I want to deny them their legal rights” definition.
@SKI: Awesome reference, SKI. Thanks.
@Doug Mataconis:
FWIW, I started reading TAC and Dreher specifically in order to get a dose of reasoned opinion that differed from mine. And on subjects other than non-heterosexual sex, Dreher can be well reasoned and insightful. But when it comes to sex he is a hysteric of epic proportions. I’m afraid that it probably means he has some kind of unresolved sexual issue of his own. 10-15 years ago I would have scoffed at that analysis as dime store psychology but the shear volume of bible thumpers who have come out or been outed is astounding.
In the meantime I find myself reading him less and less, as his ratio of reasoned posts vs. hysterical “The End Times Are Here Because Storeowners Have To Sell To The Gays” is currently about one in ten.
@Argon: Mr. Brown can moo. Can you?
@KM: @Pch101: Thomas Jefferson was perfectly fine with the beliefs of and respectful of the Christian Founding Fathers. We all know he did not follow Christianity, but there were only a few peeps that were our Founding Fathers who still, even in unbelief in our Creator, based the Constitution on Christian morals and values which were the vast majority of the signers. Would they have signed it if they did not agree? I forgot which quote i am in reply (like the burning and torturing) to as it does not show so i may come back to this if I missed your mark. I do thank you for your kind reply.
@Ron Burdick Jr:
The US is a nation with Christians who live in it.
The US is not a Christian nation, nor should it ever be.
If you want a theocracy, then go live in Saudi Arabia, where you will find many kindred spirits.
@Grumpy Realist: You mean the conquistadors I spose. The Trail of Tears was a shame, but that was not in the name of GOD. The Pilgrims were peaceful, and you know why we have Thanksgiving. There are certainly bad apples that ruin the whole bunch. Hava nice day Grumpy.
Some folks need to read Article VI of the Constitution:
no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.
@Pch101: So now we have Sharia brought in? Who’s doing all the burning, torturing, and killing now? Some of that was done by Catholics against Protestants, who left a theocracy to start a new country, hence separation of church and state.. You defend Islam by recognizing Morocco as the first country to recognize the USA. Any protests from the Muslims being brought into the conversation here? Oh that’s right, they would not even be in here seeing as their “boy scouts” are trained to decapitate us all. Radical Islam has no tolerance for gays, but one day they will unite with the world against Christians, then when taken out of the way (that would be the USA, the last country to defend), the Jews. Islam and Christianity have little to nothing common either, nor do they with democracy. Thank you for your kind comments, Pch.
@Ron Burdick Jr:
This is not a Christian country.
no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.
If you want a theocracy, then leave.
@Ron Burdick Jr: I was trying fo edit the end say Islam and democracy do not jive.
@Pch101: Thank you. You said that. Christians do not want a theocracy.
@CSK: What kind of American are you? What about seperation of church and state? I don’t identify as a Christian-American. We are pc gone wild.
@SKI: Oh I can come up with hundreds of quotes from our founders alone on GOD, including Thomas Jefferson, but would you bother to read them? . It’s a fact this country wanted religious freedom from Pch’s “theocracy”.
@grumpy realist: Quite the contrary. He has no need to quote me. I quote Him.
@Ron Burdick Jr: God being a generic term can mean anything from the basic forces of the universe to the flying spaghetti monster and everything in between. As such the word is meaningless without an attachment to a specific religion or belief.
BTW Allah is just Arabic for god. In the eyes of an outsider you’re all incredibly arrogant and a little nuts for claiming that only you know what “god” wants…
@Ron Burdick Jr:
If you want a nation that has laws based upon a right-wing version of Christianity, then you want a theocracy.
The only difference between an advocate of a Christian theocracy and a supporter of sharia law is the particular faith that they wish to shove down other peoples’ throats.
George Orwell would not be impressed by your use of 1984 as an instruction manual. You can try to manipulate the language, but your game is obvious.
@HarvardLaw92: Who is hating? Who is doing all the rioting, breaking windows, burning cars? I certainly do not hate any of you here. Even Pch! Lol! Kidding brah! Who loves y’all baaaabeee??!! Oh yeah, you know who!
@Matt: Matt, thank you and you are so right. I was once an arrogant sob. Like once an alcoholic always i spose. I am very thankful for all that GOD has done and how He changed me. And everyone can know what He wants. But youse has to wants it. JESUS never forced anything on anyone, unless they were evil spirits, even then they were given an option (see Legion). It’s all written in the greatest selling book of all time. And that is what is so great about what we want to believe. We are given a choice. And turning away. Would you ask Harvard Law who founded the school by chance, and which way it leans, or completely is now?
@KM: I agree. If this be the wishes of mostest, then it is time to dissolve the Boy and Girl Scouts and just call them them Gender Neutral Scouts of America. They can all go camping, sleeping in the same tents, and learn how to use generators to run their little Betty Crocker ovens. There is a push to make a third sex now. A movement by some college age kids to all be gender neutral. Sex for all, by all, with all. Sounds sweet, til it’s their turn to walk the talk. Evolve means to dissolve.
@Pch101: I don’t get your hangup, but Socialism is also a theocracy. They do not believe in GOD, which is a religion in itself so they are led by their “religious” leaders. Follow at your own risk.
Does anyone even know what the Boy Scouts Motto is? This is the problem.
Boy Scout Oath or Promise: On my honor, I will do my best. To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.
What if the boy in the picture with a rainbow flag was carrying a flag of CHRIST? Probably would be a burning in protest. What if the flag was jihadist? How would your reactions differ? If you had to choose between the two, which would you choose. I said if you had to. You can believe there is a Heaven and Hell or not. If there is good and evil, then there is GOD and the devil, and not byproducts of evolution. The defacto leader of the anti-Christ movement of the today, Mr. Dawkins, says life is a cruel joke to us. That is an angry man. Where is the hope in that? How can we possibly encourage our children to stop turning to smack, or killing themselves, with rhetoric like this? More pills? If this is all life has to offer, then just let them die, right? Is this the hope we want to give to our kids? No pressure, iust take this. JESUS is that hope, that light in the darkness. While the USA turns away, the rest of the world is turning towards Him. Muslims are seeing visions. China may be coming by the thousands. America turns her back. We caught a break for now. I am by no means saying Trump is a good man. But hopefully he can be. Time will tell.
Christianity is on the way out of here and will be persecuted worldwide, and that is prophesied. In other words, not my words. It’s unfolding now. GOD loves you all. I will end with four true Thomas Jefferson quotes.
Thomas Jefferson
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; DIPLOMAT; GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA; SECRETARY OF STATE; THIRD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man.
The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses.
I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.
I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ
@Ron Burdick Jr:
You need to move to a theocracy with doctors who can treat your OCD and addiction to intolerance.
@Ron Burdick Jr: That is absolutely hilarious and horrifying that you think socialism has anything to do with a belief or disbelief in a god. Socialism has nothing to do with the belief or lack of belief in a god. In your own religion Jesus was a socialist but your god is a sadist who greatly enjoyed kicking over the ant hills called human civilization..
So since the disbelief in a god is a religion then what is the holy book? Holy writings? Prophets? You know all that stuff that every single religion has??
The rest of your comment is typical of the brainwashed “conservative” Christian. You can’t understand how people can find the motivation to be good without the FEAR OF GOD because your religion is a crutch for you. I don’t need an imaginary old dude in the sky to tell me to be a good person.
Over 70% of this country identifies as Christian. You’re not in the minority you’re not being oppressed or persecuted. Just because I don’t want you dictating that I have to follow your religion isn’t oppression. Get over yourself.
@Ron Burdick Jr: The Morranos and Moriscos woudl like a word…
@Ron Burdick Jr: Massachusetts Bay Colony too…
@Ron Burdick Jr: And the dictionary…
Faith in G-d is a wonderful thing but it doesn’t replace knowledge or reason – two things you seem to be utterly devoid of.