I respectfully and staunchly disagree with Stephen Hoitt, and take exception with his claim that the Boy Scouts "do not teach kids about sexuality." There are many ways through which children learn. Teaching and learning are infinitely complex processes, but there is a very simple reality that Hoitt overlooks. By explicitly banning gay members, the Scouts are in fact teaching children about sexuality. The message that is sent to Scout members and also to greater society is one of intolerance and exclusion: "Straight is right. Gay is wrong." The not-so-subtly "hidden" lesson Scouts communicate and de facto sanction everyday through this Anti-Gay policy is that to be gay is to be less, to be avoided, to be shunned. Through your choices and policies, you teach. Hoitt's overt denial of this implicit connection strikes this reader as politically expedient and insultingly insincere.
Re: “Scouting ways out of the culture war”
I respectfully and staunchly disagree with Stephen Hoitt, and take exception with his claim that the Boy Scouts "do not teach kids about sexuality." There are many ways through which children learn. Teaching and learning are infinitely complex processes, but there is a very simple reality that Hoitt overlooks. By explicitly banning gay members, the Scouts are in fact teaching children about sexuality. The message that is sent to Scout members and also to greater society is one of intolerance and exclusion: "Straight is right. Gay is wrong." The not-so-subtly "hidden" lesson Scouts communicate and de facto sanction everyday through this Anti-Gay policy is that to be gay is to be less, to be avoided, to be shunned. Through your choices and policies, you teach. Hoitt's overt denial of this implicit connection strikes this reader as politically expedient and insultingly insincere.