“A Boy Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent and now, as of January 30, 2017, his troop includes transgenders.

This all came about because a mother sued because her transgender boy was excluded from a New Jersey Scouting unit.  Because of her staunch opposition, the issue of determining gender based on birth certificates in the BSA is a moot point in the new BSA policy. Before now, there was limited attention paid to transgenders in the Boy Scouts.

The Boy Scouts seem to invite controversy when in 2013, BSA Council approved a ½ (ass) measure that would allow openly gay scouts into the troops, but not allow gay Scout Masters.  This policy presented a problem for the Eagle Scouts, who once turned eighteen, wanted to be Scout Masters.  Finally, in 2015, the BSA ban on gay scout leaders was lifted.

The Boy Scouts will undoubtedly pay a price for admitting transgender troop members when conservative churches and corporations that are large donors, withdraw their financial support.  But the world and family has changed since its founding, and the BSA should reflect its commitment to the BSA’s Oath to …”do my duty to God and my country and the obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” 

I’m glad that the organization realizes that you don’t have to be straight to be morally straight!

The Girl Scouts have always been more progressive than the BSA. It addressed this discrepancy as far back as 2012 when it admitted a transgender girl into a Denver troop despite the controversy it ensued from conservative groups who otherwise may have financially supported the Girl Scouts.

In so expanding their inclusion, the GSA was true to their Position statement: “we recognize the basic human rights of all people, including LGBT individuals.  All citizens, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, have the rights to housing, employment, and be free from violence and inequality.”