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Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Well that was fast: Boy Scouts Dropping "Boy" From Their Name

Via The Hill:
         The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is changing its name for the first time in its 108-year history.

         The scouting organization, originally designed for boys ages 11–17, will be called Scouts: BSA starting in February, The Associated Press reported.

         The move to a gender-neutral name arrives on the heels of the organization’s decision to accept girls into its ranks next year.

        Girls already started enrolling as Cub Scouts this year, and more than 3,000 have reportedly joined so far.
This is what is referred to as convergence within an organization. That is, once you let the social justice warriors in, they will gradually change the mission of the organization until it matches what the social justice warriors want. In 2000, the United States Supreme Court held that the Boy Scouts could set their own admission standards. With that, the legal challenges mostly faded away and the progressives changed to undermining the organization from within.

        First to fall was the ban on homosexual boys from joining the BSA, which ban was removed by the BSA's governing board in 2013 (taking effect 2014). Key to these changes were board members James Turley, CEO of Ernst & Young, and Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T.  Next was the ban on homosexual leaders. In 2015, at the urging of BSA's then president Robert Gates (a former Secretary of Defense), the Board agreed to allow homosexual leaders into the BSA.

       It should be noted that these changes were largely forced on the BSA by its corporate sponsors such as  Intel, Chase Manhattan Bank, UPS, Merck & Co., Caterpillar, Chipotle, Lockheed Martin, Levi Strauss, Fleet Bank, CVS Pharmacy, and Pew Charitable Trusts. Public figures such as Bill Gates and Steven Speilberg, then-President Obama, and Mitt Romney all voiced opposition to the BSA's stance against homosexuality.

        Once those bans were discarded, remaining bans quickly fell. In January 2017, the BSA announced that it would allow transgender boys into the Scouts. Quickly, thereafter, the BSA began to allow girls. Although Cub Scout dens are supposed to be single gender, the Boy Scouts packs could decide on whether to have separate units by gender, or combined packs.

       And now, the BSA is dropping "Boy" from its name. How soon before the Scouts begin teaching its boys about toxic masculinity?

       Interestingly, all of these changes were made because they were deemed necessary to save the BSA from declining membership and interest. However, all this inclusiveness has not arrested the decline in membership. In fact, given the strong opposition from many of the churches that sponsored BSA groups, it has likely accelerated the decline.

       In any event, an organization that was originally committed to helping produce men from boys has abandoned its very purpose for existing.

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