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{"id":5946,"date":"2017-01-31T09:35:58","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T15:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=5946"},"modified":"2017-01-31T09:50:45","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T15:50:45","slug":"next-boy-scouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/01\/next-boy-scouts.html","title":{"rendered":"What next, Boy Scouts?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"By$ <\/p>\n

Was it inevitable?<\/p>\n

The Chief Executive of the Boy Scouts of America, Michael Surbaugh, announced yesterday<\/a> that transgender children will be allowed to register as Boy Scouts or Cub Scouts based on their parents\u2019 declaration on the registration forms that the child is a boy.<\/p>\n

The article on CNN.com<\/a> places this in the context of an 8 year old child,\u00a0Joe Maldonado, who was rejected from Cub Scouts because, though identifying as a boy, this child was born a girl.<\/p>\n

Is this right? \u00a0Is this wrong? \u00a0In terms of the the objectives of Cub Scouting, and the reason for the separation by sex, it\u2019s probably perfectly fine \u2014 if this child presents as a boy, and interacts with the others as a boy, and, let\u2019s face it, has the maturity level of a boy. \u00a0But that Cub Scout will become a Boy Scout, and the entire point of Boy Scouts is to go on outings, where boys share tents or cabins and changing space. \u00a0So far as I can tell, there is no guidance about what to do in such a case \u2014 and perhaps this is so because, unlike the questions of gay youth or gay leaders, this came out of nowhere. \u00a0Remember, I\u2019m a Scout mom, and a Cub Scout committee chair, and the wife of the Scoutmaster. \u00a0I think I\u2019d know if there was even an inkling, but there was, so far as I can tell, no consultation of the membership at all.<\/p>\n

And unlike the question of gay leaders, there appears to be no opportunity for individual chartered organizations to exercise any discretion.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, I suspect it won\u2019t be long before a, let\u2019s say, girl-identifying girl and her parents decide that there\u2019s no harm done in checking the \u201cboy\u201d box. \u00a0The signature box doesn\u2019t even require the signer to affirm that the information provided is true, and the statement of the policy says nothing further than \u201cbased on the gender identity indicated on the application.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, I know that the BSA has lost lots of funding ever since their membership policies became an issue. \u00a0I know that they\u2019re trying to get back into everyone\u2019s good graces. \u00a0But this top-up decision seems about as well-thought out as\u00a0a Trump executive order.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: \u00a0By David Fine (This image is from the FEMA Photo Library.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"