Newsgroup: it.sociale.scout
Titolo: Robert M. Gates, Turncoat and Disgrace to Men Calls for End to Ban on Gay Leaders.

The president of the Boy Scouts of America on Thursday called 
for an end to the group’s blanket ban on gay adult leaders, 
warning Scout executives that “we must deal with the world as it 
is, not as we might wish it to be,” and that “any other 
alternative will be the end of us as a national movement.”
 
At the same time, religious organizations that sponsor a 
majority of local Scout troops, including the Mormons and Roman 
Catholics, should remain free to set their own policies for 
leaders, said the president, Robert M. Gates, the former 
director of the C.I.A. and the former secretary of defense.
 
Mr. Gates called for the changes at an annual national meeting 
of the group, in Atlanta. He said that he was not yet making a 
formal proposal but that the Scouts’ governing body should take 
up the issue formally at a future meeting.
 
The treatment of gay men and boys has been a source of wrenching 
debate over the last decade. Conservative religious groups that 
sponsor many Scout troops, including the Mormon Church and the 
Roman Catholic Church, have opposed the participation of openly 
gay members while local leaders in more liberal areas have 
called for an end to the ban.
 
In 2013, Boy Scout leaders from across the country voted, with 
more than 60 percent approval, to say that no youth may be 
denied membership “on the basis of sexual orientation or 
preference alone.” But it left intact the policy that no openly 
gay adults could serve in the organization.
 
Since then, a Scout group in New York has defied that policy by 
employing an openly gay leader, and several other groups around 
the country have expressed opposition to the ban.
 
Mr. Gates said in his prepared remarks Thursday, released by the 
Boy Scouts, that the national leadership would take no action 
against defiant local councils.
 
At the same time, he said that in the name of religious freedom, 
the Scouts should allow local sponsoring organizations “to 
determine the standards for their Scout leaders.”
 
“Such an approach would allow all churches, which sponsor some 
70 percent of our Scout units, to establish leadership standards 
consistent with their faith,” he said.
 
“We must, at all costs, preserve the religious freedom of our 
church partners to do this.”
 
Zach Wahls, the executive director of Scouts for Equality, a 
group that has campaigned for change, praised Mr. Gates for the 
speech.
 
“Dr. Gates has built his reputation on straight talk and tough 
decisions, and I’m glad he’s fully endorsing a re-evaluation of 
the Boy Scouts’ ban on gay adults,” Mr. Wahls said in a 
statement. “It seems like the Boy Scouts will continue an 
internal dialogue about the subject and that a change within the 
next year or two is imminent.”
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/22/us/boy-scouts-president-calls-
 
for-end-to-ban-on-gay-leaders.html
 
 
 

 The president of the Boy Scouts of America on Thursday called
 
Well that was a well-balanced and well-reasoned rebuttal to Robert 
Gates' statement...... oh... hang on.... did I miss the rebuttal?
 
Andy