LAST EDITED ON 05-28-13 AT 09:21 PM (EST)

Word.

The thing these doom-n-gloomers should be asking themselves is how the BSA survived 81 years (1910-1991) without banning gays?

The ban on openly gay youths never actually served a purpose, it simply was a position statement, an unnecessary one, created in an over-reaction to the gay rights movement. Scouting should never have been politicized in that way.

The ban on openly gay adults participating in scouting unfortunately does serve a purpose, it prevents some former scouts and some parents of current scouts (sometimes both in the same person) from contributing their valuable services to scouting.

The only ban originally structured into scouting, in Britain from the start and in the US from 1910 onward, was against participation by atheists and agnostics. That ban actually served a couple of purposes as well, though it is debatable whether those are purposes worth serving when it does mean excluding some children from scouting. Imagine how ballistic the doom-n-gloomers would go if the BSA even hinted that there might be a vote on that ban.