Friday, January 25, 2013

The Snowflake that Starts an Avalanche

Boy Scouts get ready to kick out a troop for having a non-discrimination policy that covers sexual orientation. The offending policy reads
Pack 442 WILL NOT discriminate against any individual or family based on race, religion, national origin, ability, or sexual orientation.
The Boy Scouts, which insisted before the Supreme Court that discriminating against gays was essential to their expressive mission, are none too pleased, and is threatening to derecognize the pack if they don't take the statement down. As Les Baron, CEO and Scout Executive of the local umbrella scout organization put it: "That's a message that's against our policy, and we don't want it continue to be out in our community," Baron says.

One has to wonder if a dam is beginning to crack. Of course, Pack 442 is still deliberating over whether to rescind their non-discrimination policy or to stand firm. And Pack 442 would not be the first scout group to lose its charter over this issue. But as the years pass and the BSA's position grows more isolated and antiquated, this sort of local rebellion will only become more frequent and harder to ignore. And at some point, the levy will break and the organization will have a full-scale rebellion to contend with.