Boy Scouts helped cover up child abuse for decades

[Martinus]

Plain and simple. Keep homosexuals out of organizations like BSoA. These men who are homosexuals preying on the innocence of young boys should not be tolerated no more than keeping men from being girl scout leaders for fear of the likelihood that they may prey on young girls.

That does have SOME merit.

Well, AFAIK the Boy Scouts of America had a VERY strict "NO GAYS ALLOWED" policy . . .

Tamas is an idiot so he doesn't know this. The Boy Scouts of America are as vocal (and as effective) at keeping gays out as the Catholic Church clergy.

A better question is rather: why would anyone want to be a member. It's the same thing as with the military and jobs like prison guards - any volunteers should be immediately locked up as criminally insane.

No. The better question is: why do you know anything about the American boy scouts? Interested much?!

The BSoA kicking openly gay teachers and students out, and the protests, calls to cut state funding etc. to them because of that, is one of the most widely reported GLBT rights issues in all GLBT news sources over the last few years. 

[CountDeMoney]

Well, I was thinking that issues like sexual harassment and intimidation in the military and business were good analogies and the policies of the Military and Large Corporations as non-dogmatic secular institutions provided an excellent counter-example to dogmatic religious institutions. But you make a decent point.

Sexual harassment and intimidation in the military is not the best example. 

[Martinus]

a non-dogmatic secular organization,

Like, say, a state university?

I was thinking of something like the US military or a large multinational corporation where you can re-assign the perpetrator elsewhere and the manager can wash his or her hands of the issue.

Has it occurred to you that the fact these organizations do not have an institutional access to children may be a better reason than the fact they are secular? 

Well, I was thinking that issues like sexual harassment and intimidation in the military and business were good analogies and the policies of the Military and Large Corporations as non-dogmatic secular institutions provided an excellent counter-example to dogmatic religious institutions. But you make a decent point.

So, this is how mainly non-dogmatic secular schools deal with similar situations

https://www.google.no/search?q=teacher+pupil+sex&sugexp=chrome,mod=18&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=teacher+pupil+sex&hl=en&safe=off&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ei=e1ZYUMCcJI3WsgaXzYGQBg&ved=0CA0Q_AUoBA&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=e564d2828434d5b&biw=1013&bih=1054

they expose the teacher and fire and prosecute them for kiddie rape. Even when she is a HOTT 20 something sex-bomb and the kid really really wanted it.

There is a lot of gender dynamics comments that can be made here. Obviously a female teacher is not a powerful and influential figure, too.

And corporations and the military are notorious for covering up cases of sexual harassment against employees or soldiers, too.

[Martinus]

Well, I was thinking that issues like sexual harassment and intimidation in the military and business were good analogies and the policies of the Military and Large Corporations as non-dogmatic secular institutions provided an excellent counter-example to dogmatic religious institutions. But you make a decent point.

Sexual harassment and intimidation in the military is not the best example. 

Yeah, I was wondering what Viking was smoking. The militaries everywhere are notorious for widespread abuse and harassment of underlings by superiors. 

Edit: Corporations and sexual government organizations are pretty bad at this too.

[Viking]

Yeah, I was wondering what Viking was smoking. The militaries everywhere are notorious for widespread abuse and harassment of underlings by superiors. 

Which is why the non-dogmatic secular tag is used by me. The thing is that serious militaries and corporations and school systems which when they finally were, often involuntarily, made informed of the situation took measures institution policies, best practices and management incentives to prevent this.

They don't pretend it doesn't happen and they don't pretend that the problem will go away. The issue here is that the line manager, school teacher or major that do sexually abuse their underlingns do get fired and prosecuted, they do not get transferred to abuse more children.

Absence of news is not proof of absence on any issue. One of the main reasons the catholic church (and presumably now the boy scouts) are getting flack about this is that they are presumably better on this issue than smaller less organized and bureaucratized churches. They have systems and reports and hierarchies that can be exposed. I think I have good reason to say that the US Army is much much better on this issue than the Catholic Church and I think I have good reason to say that your local school district is also much much better on this issue than the boy scouts.

[Eddie Teach]

I guess Viking hasn't read any of the dozen Penn St. threads.

[Caliga]

A better question is rather: why would anyone want to be a member. It's the same thing as with the military and jobs like prison guards - any volunteers should be immediately locked up as criminally insane.

I was a Boy Scout and being in Scouts was tremendously beneficial for me.

While I don't regret having been a Scout, I no longer want anything to do with the organization due to its anti-gay policies.

[Viking]

I guess Viking hasn't read any of the dozen Penn St. threads.

And if there were multiple Joe Paternos being transferred between the myriad Penn State campuses all over the world where they were continually repeating their abusive behaviour and were being protected by the Penn State despite losing football games then you might have a point.

[Valmy]

Has it occurred to you that the fact these organizations do not have an institutional access to children may be a better reason than the fact they are secular? 

Yeah any institution that deals with children is going to have these kinds of problems.  The test of the organization is how they deal with them.

[Valmy]

I was a Boy Scout and being in Scouts was tremendously beneficial for me.

While I don't regret having been a Scout, I no longer want anything to do with the organization due to its anti-gay policies.

It just shows how Homophobes operate.  They ban gays from an organization...and yet when that organization sexually abuses kids it is somehow still the fault of gays.  That is some weird ass thinking right there.

[Barrister]

Anyone bother to point out that this is a review of historical records from 1971-1991?  While the Boy Scouts covering up allegations of sexual abuse during the period is indeed shameful, it doesn't say very much at all about the current state of the organization.

[DGuller]

Anyone bother to point out that this is a review of historical records from 1971-1991?  While the Boy Scouts covering up allegations of sexual abuse during the period is indeed shameful, it doesn't say very much at all about the current state of the organization.

Yeah, we should wait for the 1992-2012 volume.

[Caliga]

If I was not a Boy Scout
I wonder what I'd be
If I was not a Boy Scout
Martinus I would be!

"Ewww, a bug!
I'll squish it on the rug!
Ewww, a bug!
I'll squish it on the rug!"

[Neil]

Gays are dangerous, but so are people who care about these sorts of things.

[garbon]

Gays are dangerous, but so are people who care about these sorts of things.

People who care about child abuse?