Gay-Friendly Cub Scouts Pack Now Not Gay Friendly Thanks To Icky Boy Scouts Pressure

boy scoutsDespite Boy Scouts of America coming back from their two-year review of their LGBTQ policy with a whopping “sorry, no gays,” a particular Maryland Cub Scouts pack decided to go rogue. But considering that Boy Scouts has threatened to remove the pack’s charter, that tiny pocket of gay-friendly Cub Scouts in Maryland has now dropped such a policy. Another sucky move thanks to Boy Scouts of America.

NBC news reports that Pack 442 of Cloverly, Maryland admirably broke with the Boy Scouts policy of not admitting queer children and families. The pack adopted their own non-discrimination policy that outright stated “sexual orientation” along with race, religion, ability, and origin.

But just this weekend, the pack reportedly posted the following on their website:

”Due to pressure from the National Capital Area Council of BSA, Pack 442 was forced to remove its Non-Discrimination statement in order to keep our Charter (set to expire Jan 31st). This Non-Discrimination statement, previously posted here, welcomed ALL families.”

Pack 442 approved their own non-discrimination policy in August 2012, which was also “discussed in detail” with the regional council and district leaders and approved by parents of the members. Everyone thought all was fine and “settled.” But when that charter came up for renewal, Boy Scouts issued the strong arm:

…the council ”contacted us a few weeks ago pressuring us to remove our statement, we attempted to negotiate a rewording of the statement that would represent a compromise on the matter, but ultimately NCAC leadership felt only removal of the statement would be acceptable,” the pack said on its website.

Theresa Phillips, committee chair of Pack 442, says all signs point to the obvious:

”It’s clear to us that they chose this time to bring that up because they knew that we needed to recharter at the end of January.”

Unconfirmed reports suggest that Pack 442 might be considering a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy — you know, the kind that was just deemed so archaic that we abolished it for our military — based on a poll:

The poll, which ended Friday night and was conducted on the pack website, came out 53 percent in favor of reverting to ”don’t ask, don’t tell” and 47 percent backing the new policy, said Phillips, who voted in favor of explicitly including gays and lesbians. The poll had called for a two-thirds majority, she said.

Seriously? Enacting a Cub-sized version of DADT for 7- to 10-year-olds?

(photo: SandiMako / Shutterstock.com)

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