Newsgroups: rec.scouting,alt.discrimination,alt.politics.homosexuality
Subject: Re: BofA and UW can now support discrimination ag
From: klin@husc8.harvard.edu (Karin Lin)
Date: 26 Aug 92 20:13:52 EDT
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

In article <1992Aug26.202556.13205@spdc.ti.com> achenbac@epcot.spdc.ti.com (Jeff Achenbach) writes:
>
>I have a little hard time believing this(born gay). If there was a gay gene, 
>wouldn't it have been lost somewhere along the way? 

"If there were a gene for blue eyes, wouldn't it have been lost somewhere along
the way?"

Just to get rid of any assumptions, I'm not gay; I'm completely heterosexual.
I didn't choose to be heterosexual, nor could I choose to be gay if I wanted
to.  And for all those who claim that homosexuality is a choice, WHY would 
anyone choose to be homosexual given all the discrimination they'd face?  I
certainly didn't choose to be female, Asian, atheist, or any of the other
qualities that make me a minority.  I don't see why anyone would actively
choose to be homosexual.

I still don't understand trying to force
>your way into a group whose expressed standards exclude you from being a 
>member. I guess it's my personal attitude toward such things that's preventing
>me from understanding.

This, I think, is actually a pretty good point.  The question I think one has
to address is: why are you being excluded, and what does the group have to
offer you?  If it's not terribly important to you anyway, then of course you
won't force your way into it.  As a female I can't join the fraternities at
MIT, and that doesn't bother me because I believe that there are reasons for
single-sex living groups, and I don't terribly want to be in a fraternity 
anyway.  But when the group has a lot to offer, as does BSA, and the standards
for inclusion/exclusion are  irrelevant to the purposes of the group, I can
definitely understand why people would wish to protest the discrimination.
The goals of BSA, as I understand, are to teach young men how to become good
citizens and leaders.  Being homosexual or being atheist has nothing to do with
one's ability to be a good citizen or leader.  It's just arbitrary discrim-
ination on the part of the BSA people, and while it may be legal I think it's
a terrible shame and that's why I'm against it.

And where do people get the idea that having homosexual leaders will lead
to child molestation and/or encouraging young boys to be homosexuals?  It's
really sad, I think, that the BSA is succumbing to popuular prejudices and
misconceptions instead of being a leader in the fight against discrimination.

When it comes to youth
>organizations, I must support a parent's right to make choices, right or wrong.

I think I agree with you on this point, but what kind of choices are you
talking about?  I don't quite see the relevance of this point to BSA.  Do you
mean that a parent has a right to have his/her son belong to an organization
that excludes homosexuals?  If so, does that outweigh another parent's right
to have his/her son belong to an organization that includes homosexuals?  Do
either of those parents have the right to say that homosexual children of
other parents have no right to join the BSA?

>>Than don't.  But do not tell me that I can't be a good role model becuase 
>>of the sex of my bedmate.  It is not a behavioral aberration anymore than 
>>eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches.  It is different from the 
>>cultural mainstream, yes. But differences are what is supposed to make this
>>country great.  And that is one of the BSA's teachings.  
>
>Maybe I misunderstand the meaning of aberration. Doesn't it mean different 
>from the majority? 

Yeah...but it can also have the connotation of being a *bad* difference
(as in being perverted or whatever) and I think that was the objection the
previous poster had.

>Jeff Achenbach
>achenbac@epcot.spdc.ti.com

Cheers,
  Karin
-- 
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|          Karin Lin               |            ...NOW                  |
|     klin@husc.harvard.edu        |                  at MIT!!!         |
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Newsgroups: rec.scouting