commentaries

Nice article, Mr. Dale. Someday, the bigots will be silenced and all Americans will enjoy total equality under the law. That day is coming and history is on our side.

How ironic is it, James Dale, that the organization which accepted you, developed your leadership skills, inspired you to be true to your best self, instilled in you values of trustworthiness, loyalty, helpfulness, friendliness, courteousness, kindness, obedience, cheerfulness, thriftiness, bravery, cleanliness and reverence, and prepared you to make ethical and moral choices over your lifetime ultimately expected you to betray everything you'd learned?

History says that homosexuality is an psycological and emotional flaw. Embracing flaws does not overcome them. Tollerance of flaws does not mean they are to be promoted.

Mr. Dale: Thank you for a very enlightening letter! I am 65 yrs old now, but still remember the lessons scouting taught me. As I recall, they were to: • Help other people at all times • Keep myself physically strong • Mentally awake • Morally straight I am not gay, but I have friends who are. They are like everyone else on this planet. They try to survive, raise families, contribute to their communities, and like the rest of us, just want to be accepted for who the are, not for whom WE think they shoud be. I, you, and hundreds of thousands of scouts have tried to live to these standards. I don't view the "Morally Straight" part to include any reference to sexual orientation. Morally straight should be self-explanatory . To specifically EXclude ANYONE seems to contrary to the Scout Oath. KUDOS!

I support the Boy Scouts on the rules they've had for years. My son is just about ready to cross over fron the Cub to Boys Scouts, and I can tell you that I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable with him going on a camping trip with a Scout Leader who was sexually attracted to teenage males. I don't see men taking Girl Scouts on camping trips either and this is really no different.

Unfortunately, in today's society there's no solutions when both sides disagree. They just dig in deeper.

At this point in my life I was openly gay and unashamed of it. I was co-president of Rutgers's Lesbian/Gay Alliance and an assistant Scoutmaster in Troop 73 of Matawan, N.J. - and saw no contradiction between the two parts of my life. A local paper had published an article about me, and that is how my sexuality had become a matter of public record ****************** The Boy scouts saw a contradiction between you being gay and being a scoutmaster over seeing boys. If you were not ashamed of being gay, than why did you not tell the Boy scouts organization that you were gay?

"Dale the scout" informs that bias is the cause of the depression, suicide, substance abuse etc. Well, who knew? I guess SAVE and AA can go out of business, now. It couldn't have anything to do with the person, the genetics, the situation, self-esteem etc. This article is again testimony to the fact that America IS the land of the low information voter. Indeed, celebrating the societal "success" of same-sex marriage or the DADT repeal in year 1 of their passage is truly bizarre. Let's look back in year 10 or 20, OK?

thehoffers--"history says that homosexuality is a psychological and emotional flaw"? Maybe you should try science. People have all sorts of genetic differences, including sexuality.

No comments requiring fusing the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in line with the seperate therefore unequal doctrine.