Should "Gay Boy Scout" Remain an Oxymoron?

Ryan Andresen has worked very hard to be a good Boy Scout for twelve years. Maybe the strain got to him. Just weeks before his eighteenth birthday, at which point he would automatically have ceased to be a boy in any case, Andresen felt it necessary to publicize his opposition to the Boy Scouts' religious orientation and their ban on homosexual activity. Result: he was automatically booted out of the organization and thus denied the Eagle Scout award for which he'd worked so hard for so long. Billy Hallowell reports:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/gay-boy-scout-denied-eagle-award-because-of-his-sexuality/

What do I think? I think it's unfortunate that the kid's craving for attention got the better of him. The Boy Scouts have to bar homosexual practices in order to survive; no parent would knowingly send a twelve-year-old boy camping with a group that included homosexual older males. Andresen earned that Eagle Scout award, and then he blew his chance, just as a student who's done all the other work but failed to finish the thesis blows his chance to receive an advanced degree.

Dry your tears, those of you who have been moved by poor little Andresen's being denied the award on which he freely chose to spit. Eighteen-year-old boys need to learn something about living with the consequences of their actions. The conditions of being an Eagle Scout include not burdening other Scouts with any awareness of any homosexual urges you may feel. Andresen had certainly been told this before he did all that work.

The ideal being an Eagle, or even a First Class Scout, is meant to embody includes responsibility and self-control. The things for which a good Scout is supposed to "Be Prepared" include feeling physical urges without allowing those urges to interfere with what we are doing. You finish your project, even if it's boring. You stop talking in time to allow others to get their sleep before the big hike, even if you want to keep on chattering all night. And when you want to tell other people something about yourself that they definitely don't want to know, you respect their privacy and shut up.

Boy Scout "straightness" is a far bigger, broader, and more important concept than any sexual taste could be, but it does include respecting other people enough to wait until you've left an organization before you publicize your contempt for that organization's values.