From: anthropo@carina.unm.edu (Dominick V. Zurlo)
Newsgroups: rec.scouting
Subject: Re: Coming Full Circle?
Date: 5 Nov 92 17:42:11 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <silk.720917566@mcl> silk@mcl.ucsb.edu (ken mencher) writes:
>I am not ashamed to stand up (figuratively) and say that I support BSA's
>current policy.  I respect Homosexuals, and Atheists, and agree that they
>have their rights.  But, BSA is a *private* organization, and as such has
>the right to set its own rules.  As such, if the leadership of scouting
>wants to set the rules this way, so be it...we can complain, and if we feel
>we can't do anything, we can leave...
>
 Well Ken, what about those of us who were in Scouting long before
we realised that we were gay or that being gay was different from 
being straight?  I was in the BSA since I was first old enough to be
in CUbs (before Tiger Cubs) I worked hard, learned lots, and was a part
of the boy leadership for years (not just in my troop, but also on a 
council level as I was an OA Lodge Chief.)  I didn't set this policy.  
My friends in Scouting didn't set it, and beleive me, I have a lot 
of friends who are/were in scouting.  And yet even after doing the 
work I did do, and accomplish what I did (which is more than I can
list here) I was not only kicked out of scouting for being myself, 
but fired from a JOB (do I hear job discrimination, hmmmmm... how is
that respect?)  with the scouts.  A job where my superiors 
did not want to fire me, but becuase of the policy were left with no 
choice?  How is that allowing me to my rights.  
   I have just as much right to be in the BSA as you.  I grew up in 
it, my family is a big part of it, and it has helped to shape me
and make me into who I am.  That alone gives me the right.  I will 
complain, I will protest, and I will regain admission.  The national
BSA policy stripped from me part of my family.  DO you understand that!
Do any of you who oppose allowing gays into the BSA?  I wonder.  Not 
even my very strict Catholic-Italian family did that.  As my mother 
once told me, "Dominick, I can love you and cherish you and you will
always be my son, but I don't understand this(meaning my being gay)."
And now, after years of talking, she is beginning to understand.  
It's not easy, it's not always pleasant, but it is the right thing
to do.  

>However, I feel that Homosexuals and Atheists do not belong in the Scouting
>that I grew up in!  Scouting puts forward a set of values listed in the
>Oath and Law.  I see no reason why we should sacrifice these values.
 
Sorry dear, (and yes, I am now being affected) Just where in the values of
Scouting do lesbigays (I won't deal with Atheism, others can do that better
than I, and I'm sure they will.)  not fit in?  I have yet to see anywhere.
The Scouting you grew up in is filled with lesbigays.  I'm just one 
example, and I know of many others.  Just becuase you don't know it 
doesn't mean we aren't there.  And that is the point.  Scouting won't 
really change, except that it'll be more open and honest.  That does
fit in with the Scouting values.  
>
>just my $.0002 worth....
 Jeez, I just hate inflation!

WWW
Dominick V. Zurlo
Eagle Scout '87
blacklisted '88
Lodge Chief, Meechgalanne Lodge, Essex Council, NJ '86-87.
>
>ken mencher
>Eagle Class '90
>T627, cypress, CA