• Fondots@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    “DEI” is baked throughout the scout program

    And do you really think that they’re not going to try to come after that too? They’re already leaving the door open for them to come back and put more pressure on scouting in a few months, and Drinky Pete has pretty clearly said that he hopes the organization will go back to being the boy scouts.

    When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

    Also really convenient of you to just ignore the concerns about trans youths. I’m sure you’re not pushing an agenda here /s

    • 1dalm@lemmings.world
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      1 day ago

      Yes, I do think they are dropping this issue. I think Hegseth realized that he wasn’t going to get the traction on this he wanted so he agreed a nothing burger and declared victory for himself.

      I’m not ignoring the concerns of the Trans youth, it’s just that the “demands” won’t actually change them. The BSA has already issued a statement that trans youth are still welcome in scouting. No one is going to be checking anyone’s birth certificates. Literally nothing changed.

      Get a grip.

      • Fondots@lemmy.world
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        24 hours ago

        Maybe you’re right, and I’ll have sent my medal away for nothing, in which case I’m down a prized but essentially useless trinket.

        Or maybe I’m right, in which case I’m either ridding myself of a symbol of an organization I’ll no longer wish to be associated with soon, or maybe, just maybe I’m doing something that helps to prevent that from happening.

        If you’re right, I’ll feel a little silly and otherwise continue my life as normal, content that I at least stood up for something I believe in.

        But what will you do if I’m right? How would you feel knowing that you brushed this off as a non-issue if girls and trans youth, and maybe eventually other “undesirables” are eventually kicked out of scouts, when their commitment to dei wavers, and maybe they’re even twisted into a militaristic, nationalist organization like some modern Hitler Youth?

        • tomselleck@sopuli.xyz
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          23 hours ago

          I’m not the person your reply is to, but you’re spot on about where this is headed. From the DOD’s initial statement about Scouting America, it’s obvious that they want it to go back to excluding girls from the organization. As a current den leader, I was already dissatisfied with the way the organization is being run, and this is probably the final straw for me to just step away from them completely. Leadership is acting like cowards while also asking for donations. It’s incredibly disappointing.

          • Fondots@lemmy.world
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            22 hours ago

            I’m honestly a little conflicted about how people like you who are still actively involved in scouting should react to this.

            On the one hand, yeah, screw the organization, they don’t deserve support for this kind of stuff.

            On the other hand, it’s about the kids, and I do overall believe that the core values of scouting and the kind of structure it can provide are great things for a lot of kids to experience. There are other ways to provide that sort of program, but scouting is already there, and it makes more sense to me to try to preserve and improve that than to try to start something else from scratch.

            And good adult leaders can do a lot to insulate their units from the bullshit from higher-up. I know my troop wasn’t at all afraid to bend or even outright break the rules when it made sense to do so (I actually remember first learning the term “plausible deniability” from one of my leaders,) and being active at the district or council level can help put pressure from the inside (back in the 90s my local council actually tried to force the issue and allow gay scouts to join, they got shot down by national but imagine if more councils would have stepped up to do that.) Good leaders with their heads on straight leaving scouting will just result in the organization collapsing into exactly what we don’t want it to be.

            I’m not currently active in scouting, I don’t have kids and my schedule doesn’t really work with it these days to be active as a leader, so all I can do is try to make some noise from the outside leaning on my experience as an eagle scout and former leader. I have nothing to lose but also very little leverage. People like you have more leverage, but also not much to lose- absolute worst case scenario they find an excuse to kick you out, but if you don’t succeed at making change from the inside you were probably going to leave anyway.

            • tomselleck@sopuli.xyz
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              13 hours ago

              The organization is an absolute mess right now, including our district council. There’s so much that needs to be addressed, and it feels like they prioritized this situation over the actual needs of the organization. It feels hypocritical to have the kids recite the scout oath and law every meeting, while watching leadership get bullied by outsiders. It feels especially personal because now it seems like my daughter is about to be targeted. There are people still upset that girls are allowed, and they are about to feel much more emboldened by this latest misstep. It’s just mentally exhausting and I could spend my free time helping my community in other ways, that aren’t trying to exclude my kid.