The Boy Scouts of America decided to let gay kids in yesterday, only that's not what really happened, is it? There have always been gay children in the Boy Scouts. What changed yesterday is that they won't kick you out if you tell people you're gay. So you won't be told by an adult authority figure – one wearing a uniform, no less – that you're weird and different and don't belong in the special club with the normal kids. I don't think it's much of a stretch to see how the Boy Scout's decision will save lives. We know what happens when we single gay kids out and tell them that their very existence is shameful. It often involves rope, or pills, or high places, or a gun a kid turns on himself.
They still won't let gay adults be leaders, so once you turn 18, you're out. But that will change eventually. Society is clearly moving in the right direction on the issue of treating gay people like actual human beings. We're maybe 20 years away from everyone pretending that the gay rights legacy belongs to them, the way people do today with the civil rights movement. If Republicans can claim Martin Luther King now, surely they can claim Matthew Sheppard down the road.
But not today. Today there a people who would still look a gay child in the eyes and tell him "you don't belong here". Give the Westboro Baptist Church nutters credit: at least they don't hide what they believe. Is there really a substantive difference between "God Hates Fags" and "you aren't allowed to join the Boy Scouts"? The only reason anyone opposed the scout's policy change was the belief that being gay is somehow against God, that it makes God sad or angry. They like to mask the hate behind "hate the sin, love the sinner," but what good does that do you when the sin is who you are?
