so now for some opinions .this is a tough one so be nice

[frenchy]

i've been watchin the news lately and it seems the boy scouts have stirred up a bunch of trouble .. and this is a complex issue .. it seems they're not very gay friendly and that has some gay people feelin left out .. after all they're people too with feelins like the rest of us why can't they be boyscouts ?? but then you have the other side .. the religious side which feels like it goes against the grain of all their religious teachings .. and a lot of the boyscouts have their foundations in some kind of church .. be it mormon or catholic or baptist or whatever .. the boyscouts could always count on the religious community for a place to gather and to help fundraise .. and if they have to accept gay people they no longer will because they feel like their religious beliefs are bein compromised .. the churches say if you want to have a gay boyscouts start your own boyscouts but it won't be a part of the boyscouts we have now and they won't help fund it .. i could say whats wrong with don't ask don't tell but then it gives gay kiddie didlers a place to blend in and we end up with guys like sandusky or catholic priests .. so on the one hand if a guy is gay and in the scouts and my kid was involved i'd wanna know about it beforehand ..i'm not sayin i wouldn't let him join .. i'd just wanna know .. i'm not dumb enough to think that you could make a kid gay if he's exposed to it but i do think it is way way wrong to even try .. i think its a bit different if you're in the armed service because by that point you know which way you swing and you're an adult so you can make up your own mind .. but at 12 and 14 uh uh .. so i don't really have an answer for this because i don't like to discriminate .. but i don't think its a decision that a kid should have to make .. anybody else have any views on this .. lets try to be nice tho ok cause this one is touchy .. we all have opinions and thats fine .. so lets let everyone express theirs without bein judgemental ok.. 

[Kim]

1. I am happily HETEROSEXUAL but i dont go around announcing this......lol. So, if i become a Den Mother or volunteer at aan all boys school, are people gonna say, She likes men so she might molest our boys? No, of course not. A gay person is no more a molester than i am. 

[Kim]

Ok....MrMusik.....NOW you can become a boy scout leader...lol! Which brings up the question...IF someone was GAY and thought of joining the Boy Scouts as being a gay guys DREAM.....uh then you  REALLY think they would CLAIM that knowing the controversy surrounding this......uh, i dont think so!!

[Karin M Fichtner]

A good point......and a good question. 

[frenchy]

it is a good question .. and i agree that not all scoutmasters are gay but i know firsthand that the one we had was .. and he was also a kiddie diddler .. coincidence ?? maybe .. and again that part about the gay scouts molestin the other scouts was just an afterthought of my original post that i threw in there because of the experiences some of the kids i knew went thru .. i so agree that 11 year olds don't need to earn their merit badges on the sexual mores of the homo and hetero sexual males .. plenty of time for that .. but the next question would be .. when is the right age to openly discuss these things with them ?? when they're 15 and have already had their first 5 sexual encounters and just might be really confused because they're not sure which way they swing ?? or 13 so its before they do but the interest is there ?? some like to think if we don't talk about it it will all just go away .. others think if they talk about it then its the first thing they'll do so better to ignore it .. and then 13 for one kid is like 11 for another or 15 for yet another .. we always try to put an age on it to determine the right time but not every kid conforms to the same time scale .. i'm not tryin to upset anyone because i don't really know .. but do you think its better that a kid is informed about sex ? or just sent out in the world to figure it out on his own out on the streets ??