One no longer need be a boy to join the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Continuing its capitulation to the cultural Left, the BSA announced Monday that effective immediately, membership will no longer be restricted to youth with a Y-chromosome. Instead, eligibility for membership will be “based on the gender identity indicated on the application,” the organization said in a statement.
“For more than 100 years, the Boy Scouts of America, along with schools, youth sports and other youth organizations, have ultimately deferred to the information on an individual’s birth certificate to determine eligibility for our single-gender programs,” the statement explained. “However, that approach is no longer sufficient as communities and state laws are interpreting gender identity differently, and these laws vary widely from state to state.”
In a video accompanying the press release, BSA chief executive Michael Surbaugh said the decision to embrace the transgender zeitgeist was made “after weeks of significant conversations at all levels of our organization.”
As with the BSA’s previous decisions to allow openly homosexual scouts and troop leaders, outside pressure appears to have played a significant part in driving this decision.
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In late December, as part of a series of articles called “Growing Up Transgender,” the Record, a northern-New Jersey newspaper, published a lengthy story about eight-year-old Joe Maldonado, a transgender “boy” who was forced out of a Secaucus, New Jersey, Cub Scout pack after her actual sex became known. The story went national.
Joe’s mother refers to the child as her “son” and “allowed him to cut his hair short and come out as a boy when he began second grade,” the newspaper wrote. Even “his teachers have referred to him by male pronouns.”
Having had her delusions affirmed by important adults, the child was, naturally, outraged at being ejected from the Cub Scouts.
“How dare they judge me?” Joe told the paper. “I don’t have to explain it [transgenderism]. It’s the way I’m born.”
After being informed that Joe could now return to scouting, Kristie Maldonado told the Associated Press that she would like to have the child do so, “but only if the scout leader who threw him out of the troop leaves.” She said “the decision to remove her son from the troop made him feel different,” and that, apparently, should not happen to a girl who claims to be a boy.
“I’m so grateful. I really am that they’re accepting and that there won’t be any issues. They (other transgender youth) won’t have to go through what my son went through,” Maldonado said. “It’s a big change for everybody that all are accepted now … I’m so delighted that they finally called and they did say this, but I’m still angry.”
Scouts for Equality, an organization that advocates for homosexual scouts and leaders, also praised the BSA’s new policy.
“The decision to allow transgender boys to participate in the Cub Scouts and the Boy Scouts is an important step forward for this American institution,” the group’s executive director, Zach Wahls, said in a statement posted to social media. “We are incredibly proud of Joe Maldonado … and his mother Kristie for their courage in doing what they knew was right. We are also proud of the Boy Scouts for deciding to do the right thing.”
Not everyone, however, was so thrilled with the BSA’s decision.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis said in a statement that it “is deeply saddened and disturbed by the decision of Boy Scouts of America to allow girls struggling with gender dysphoria into their troops.”
“It is impossible to speak of a scout’s ‘duty to God’ while at the same time failing to recognize the fundamental order of God’s creation,” the archdiocese added. “It is clear that as they [the Boy Scouts] move in the ways of the world they are becoming increasingly incompatible with our Catholic values.”
FoxNews.com’s Todd Starnes flatly told his readers that “the time has come for every church and every parent in America to sever ties with the Boy Scouts.”
“It’s simply stunning that a leading youth organization which parents entrust the protection of their children with has opted to again appease political activists rather than follow clear, common-sense best practices for child protection,” John Stemberger, board chairman of Trail Life USA, a Christian scouting program, told Starnes.
Starnes pointed to “logistical issues” the new policy creates: “Will boys and girls be allowed to shower together? Will they be allowed to use the same camp dressing rooms? What sort of restroom accommodations will be provided for transgender scouts?”
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told Starnes the BSA’s latest move “is Exhibit A of the insatiable demands of those pushing this sexual anarchy.”
“Insatiable” is right. It started with demands for gay scouts and leaders. Then it was a call for the admission of girls who think they’re boys. And now that they have it, even that isn’t good enough for the pressure groups. According to the New York Times, while Scouts for Equality’s Wahls had kind words for the BSA’s decision, his organization “plans to push for a more formal policy.”
“We want to make sure that they work with experts who have experience with transgender youth and youth programs,” he said.
After all, we wouldn’t want female Boy Scouts — an oxymoron if ever there was one — to “feel different.”
Photo: AP Images
