Boston Globe Threatens Boy Scouts About ‘Gays’

The Boston Globe threatened the Boy Scouts last Friday that they must “[Open] the door to gay Boy Scouts.”

The threat was given by columnist Derrick Z. Jackson who said that nine large urban councils are correct in their desire to have each troop decide the issue.

A Scout spokesman countered that the unhappy, urban areas are only 9 of the 320 councils across the country. But the columnist warned that the nine have a lot of media power. (The nine areas include the Boston Globe and the New York Times, which owns the Globe. Of course, the New York Times has influence far beyond New York.)

Jackson wrote that the Scout’s comment was a “risky brushoff” when you consider that the “metropolitan areas are a quarter of the nation’s population and are huge media centers.” [emphasis added]

This is easily translated, “How dare you defy the New York Times and the Boston Globe when we tell you to do something!”

In the spirit of gaining some insight from Mr. Jackson’s apparent expertise in this area, the Publisher of MassNews, J. Edward Pawlick, has emailed some questions to him.

· Mr. Jackson, you’re assuming that those who disagree with your plan do not wish to help young boys who believe they might be gay. You’re assuming that they probably want to harass and beat them.

· Are you aware that the famed Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit at Johns Hopkins Medical School believes that we should not quickly advise a teenager who believes he is “different” that he is gay? Although it keeps its opinions pretty close to the vest, there was a glimmer of its feelings in an article that was in the winter 1999 issue of “Hopkins Medical News.”

It was about a 17-year-old who was brought to a meeting of a dozen professionals because his parents had found pornographic, homosexual literature in his room. He announced he was gay.

The parents asked the Medical School: “Is their son engaging in risky sexual interactions? Is his homosexual orientation set in stone? Or is this just a variation of an ordinary adolescent identity crisis?” Although we were never told what happened to the boy, it was clear that no one took his decision lightly at the hospital.

It was evident that they believed this was an important point in this young man’s life and we should not cavalierly accept his statement that he is gay. Later in the article, it referred to him as a “troubled” teenage boy.

When we sent our conclusions to Johns Hopkins in 1999 in order to include them in a story we were writing, they confirmed that they were accurate.

· How would the Scouts recognize a gay boy under your policy? As I understand the present policy, he will not be recognized unless he has sex with another boy, or attempts to do so. I understand that the present policy is “don’t ask, don’t tell.” In other words, a boy will not be considered gay unless he acts on homosexual, sexual desires.

· Are you advocating, nevertheless, that a sexually active gay boy be included in a troop and go on overnight camping trips?

· Is it implicit in your proposal that all teenagers are expected and encouraged to be sexually active, whether heterosexual or homosexual?

· If no boy is permitted to be sexually active on campouts, what problems do you see for gay boys under that policy?

· If sex is allowed to occur, wouldn’t this discriminate against boys who like girls? Would it violate their constitutional rights? Wouldn’t this require that those boys have girls available to them on overnight trips?

· Will we allow adults who are gay to be leaders of Boy Scout troops?

· You will be offended and say that I besmirch all gay men when I ask if gay leaders might be attracted to boys. But I must ask you: Don’t you besmirch all straight men when you advocate that they not be leaders of girl scouts? Are you saying that straight men are not as trustworthy as gay men?

· The American Psychiatric Association says, “Some [pedophiles] develop complicated techniques for gaining access to children. They may select a job, hobby or volunteer work that brings them into contact with children.” This means that the Boy Scouts would have to spend inordinate time and money while monitoring the leaders very carefully. Obviously, they are unable to control all the men who prey on boys even under the present rules. They have had to pay large sums of money to boys who have been molested. How will they manage if they must have men who are known to be attracted to other males?

· What will happen when those gay men who are proud that they like boys demand recognition? They believe they are helping boys to grow and mature in love as advocated by the North American Man/Boy Love Association. What will we say to them?

· Won’t all of this necessarily turn Scout executives into snoopers who must be constantly monitoring all gay leaders in order to protect the boys?

· Shouldn’t Boy Scouts be distinguished from schools (where children do not go on field trips and sleep in pup tents together, etc.)?

· The people who like to have sex with animals are beginning to surface and are saying just like homosexuals: · I was born that way. · I can’t change. Will we require the Boy Scouts to accept them?

· In the July 6, 2000 issue of the Globe’s “At Home” section, columnist Barbara Meltz advised mothers to tell their fifth graders about “the mechanics of sex,” including homosexual sex. When asked how to respond to a question about what homosexuals do, the mother was advised to respond, “There are different ways people give each other pleasure, sometimes genital to genital, sometimes hand or mouth to genital.” Should the Boy Scouts also receive the instruction that Ms. Meltz recommends?

· Should this sexual training be extended to younger children when they are Cub Scouts?

· It sounds like you still believe the “gay gene” theory even though it has been discredited, even by the Globe. Do you still believe it? (See “The Fading Gay Gene” in the “Focus” section on Feb. 7, 1999.)

· When columnist Jeff Jacoby was chastised by the Globe’s ombudsman as a “homophobe” on November 3, 1997, it was revealed that both of Jacoby’s editors are gay activists. How many other gay activists are on your editorial staff and what input did they have in your column? It’s difficult to believe that the column was the work of only you. Was it?

· If you believe that nine Councils will be able to impose their will over 320 others with the help of the Globe and the Times, doesn’t this mean that the big media have too much power?