Patrick Nicholas Reading Journal

My small upstate New York town functioned like a family, everyone knew everything about each other and the community typically would function as a whole, everyone was involved with everything together. Because of this it was obvious that I was a part of the local Boy Scout/ Cub scout organization in my town, I mean c’mon my brother was it my mother was a leader and every single one of my friends partook in it as well—it was a no brainier. I was in the organization from the age of about 7 to 15 or 16, for the most part I enjoyed it but as I got older I began to realize certain aspects that I didn’t associate myself with. To me Boy Scouts started to be a choir rather then a hobby, it was like I was being trained to be a part of the military—something I never wanted to associate myself with. It was finally time for me to end my tenure with Boy Scouts. As I grew older I began to realize the number of flaws it truly had, the first being that it was an anti-homosexual organization, one that did not allow openly gay members to partake. In 2000, a case reached the supreme court because a Scout Master of a local Troop in New Jersey was expelled because he was rumored to be a homosexual, the verdict allowed the scout master to return to his troop because the court ruled that being morally straight did not apply to the original code of morals that is often associated with being a Boy Scout. In recent news a homosexual father and his son were removed from a Boy Scout Troop because of the fathers homosexuality. There has not been any law suits due to the issue but it brings up the question of do they Boy Scouts of America have the right to excommunicate members just because they are gay? The issue touches on the fact of diversity in the United States, whether it’s the idea of homosexuality, religion or even race. Many people in this country still cannot except the major differences so many people across this nation have, if only humans could accept diversity rather then reject then maybe the changes we need to make as a society can begin affecting us in the most positive of ways.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scouts_of_America_v._Dale

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/10/22/granderson.gay.scout.leader/index.html?hpt=T2