This is great stuff. I shared the news about Dwayne’s amazing initiative with my work colleagues and just bought LGBTQ+ and Allied Scouts patches for 40 of them! Can’t wait to present them!
This is a wonderful step forward. I had a pretty bad experience last year after taking our troop to a baseball game that turned out to be Pride Night (in August, not June). No one complained that night, but a month later my wife and I were ambushed in the troop committee meeting by parents who were upset at participating in pride night. That “participation” consisted of standing up for the national anthem, which was sung by a drag queen, because we were upstairs in a suite with our own food and drinks, and that’s we’re not down amongst all of the pride related booths that were set up on the concourse.
We pushed back hard, of course, noting BSA’a continuing growth on DEI, including the required merit badge. I also noted that none of the scouts had done anything to participate directly in the events of that night.
It almost led me to quit the troop but I’m sticking with it. Our community is pretty conservative. Our troop is made up mostly of military retirees (including myself.), and our sponsoring organization is a Catholic church, but I’ve also noticed that the boys don’t have these issues with either DEI or LGBTQIA+ more specifically . It is only their parents.
This is great stuff. I shared the news about Dwayne’s amazing initiative with my work colleagues and just bought LGBTQ+ and Allied Scouts patches for 40 of them! Can’t wait to present them!
This is a wonderful step forward. I had a pretty bad experience last year after taking our troop to a baseball game that turned out to be Pride Night (in August, not June). No one complained that night, but a month later my wife and I were ambushed in the troop committee meeting by parents who were upset at participating in pride night. That “participation” consisted of standing up for the national anthem, which was sung by a drag queen, because we were upstairs in a suite with our own food and drinks, and that’s we’re not down amongst all of the pride related booths that were set up on the concourse.
We pushed back hard, of course, noting BSA’a continuing growth on DEI, including the required merit badge. I also noted that none of the scouts had done anything to participate directly in the events of that night.
It almost led me to quit the troop but I’m sticking with it. Our community is pretty conservative. Our troop is made up mostly of military retirees (including myself.), and our sponsoring organization is a Catholic church, but I’ve also noticed that the boys don’t have these issues with either DEI or LGBTQIA+ more specifically . It is only their parents.
Thanks for sharing that experience, Eric. It echoes what I hear so, so often: It's always the adults that struggle, and almost never the kids.