From: strom@watson.ibm.com (Rob Strom)
Subject: Re: Proposal? (girls, atheists, sexuality)
Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1992 22:09:16 GMT
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM Research

In article <1992Apr7.001923.15700@ulowell.ulowell.edu>, rcashman@cs.ulowell.edu (The Jester) writes:
|> In article <1992Apr6.045642.29861@u36.uucp> bones@u36.uucp (Lance Sibley) writes:
|> >
|> [Mr. Sibley's gripes about the level of the conversation and a bit of his
|>  scouting background deleted.]
|> >
|> [Mr. Sibley's babbling about his personal life deleted.]
|> >We cannot be your pretty little
|> >"nuclear family," with a home in the suburbs and 2.3 children playing in 
|> >the yard with the dog.
|> >
|> >Says who?
|> >
|> 
|> 
|> Says the ninety-plus percent of American citizens who follow a heterosexual
|> lifestyle instead of a homosexual one.  Regardless of whether or not adoption
|> by a homosexual couple can be done, no, you do not form a traditional
|> nuclear family.  A traditional nuclear family consists of a) a husband (male),
|> b) a wife (female), and possibly c) one or more children (of either gender).
|> You and your [sic] "spouse" are not consistent with this traditional nuclear
|> family ideal.  Get used to that fact.
|> 

I'm one of the ninety-plus percent of American citizens who follow a
"heterosexual lifestyle", but I disagree that Mr. Cashman speaks for me.

In a pluralistic democracy, I will agree to tolerate others,
and I expect others to tolerate me.  It may be that in
a typical American nuclear family, the husband likes to
watch basketball games, but I don't.  I don't want to
be ostracized (except from basketball fan clubs) for
not liking basketball.  I won't ostracize my next-door neighbor
for not liking music.  

Now my son's been in scouts.  I know what they do.
And there is absolutely no relationship between
scouting activities and either religion or sexual
orientation.  I claim that people pretend that there
is as a pretext for excluding certain groups against
which some Americans are prejudiced.

In two prior postings I asked whether celibates
(e.g. priests, friars, etc.) are excluded from
leadership roles in Scouts.  I'm fairly sure that
they are not.  It is obvious that priests and friars
cannot have "normative" nuclear families.  If they're
not excluded from scouting but homosexuals are, then
it's obvious that there's some other reason having
nothing to do with the nuclear family behind the
exclusion.  The reason is good old-fashioned prejudice.

Nobody's disputing the BSA's legal rights to be prejudiced.
But we can also try to change the prejudice.  We can
unmask the phony rationalizations behind the prejudice.
We can apply pressure via funding agencies.  We can
make sure BSA is excluded from public arenas where
discrimination is forbidden.  We can make the
fact of discrimination less secret so that it may
an embarrassment for this to continue.  And of course
we can get up here on Usenet and argue that the Scouts
are violating their own principles.


-- 
Rob Strom, strom@watson.ibm.com, (914) 784-7641
IBM Research, 30 Saw Mill River Road, P.O. Box 704, Yorktown Heights, NY  10598