Boy Scouts of America will no longer rely on birth certificates for determining a child’s eligibility into Boy Scouts, allowing transgender boys to join. Boy Scouts have fought this change for ages, even going as far as the Supreme Court in 2000, which determined BSA was allowed to determine who could be excluded, including gay or transgender boys and men. In 2015, they reversed the ban on gay scouts and leaders and just recently they allowed transgender scouts to join.
Key Takeaways:
- Yesterday, the Boy Scouts of America instituted a long-awaited policy change. They will no longer rely on birth certificates to determine a boy’s eligibility for the Scouts, thereby clearing the way for transgender boys to join the organization.
- Compared to the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts have always been ahead of their time: from their push for racially integrated troops in the 1950s to their inspiring move in 2015 to turn down a $100,000 donation that was offered on the condition that it not be used to support transgender scouts.
- Of course, homophobia and transphobia are their own kinds of hatred and fear. But I would argue that at their core is the belief that men are better than women and therefore it is far less acceptable for a boy or man to blur those boundaries than for a girl or woman to.
“There’s no question that the Girl Scouts has evolved faster as an institution, but I believe that this difference is, at its core, based in sexism.”
http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/1131679/boy-scouts-transgender-policy
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