Boy Scouts Aren't Gay

For my Research Argument Assignment topic, I chose to write about all of the debate that is going on with the Boy Scouts and their policies on not allowing homosexuals or atheists’.  This issue has really become popular in the media recently and it is a very important issue to me.  All my life I have been involved in scouts, and I am an Eagle Scout.  I am one of very few scouts that are representatives of the Boy Scouts of America, meaning I go around the world to visit other countries scouts’ as a rep for America.  I have even been able to save a life using skills that I have learned through Boy Scouts.  Because of all of these things, scouting is very important to me, including this issue.

Some of the issues people raise about the gay people not being allowed are that it isn't fair, if scouts are kind shouldn't they be accepting, and many other reasons.  Issues that arise about atheist and agnostics is again, people say that scouts should be accepting, but it is in the scout oath that it is our duty to God to be morally straight.  If a person is atheist or gay, they can’t exactly follow the scout oath because it isn't morally straight.  And why would a person want to be in an organization in which they don’t even believe in the oath.

I personally do not believe that they should be allowed as members because it goes against what the Boy Scouts stand for and I don’t think selling out our morals will help make our organization stronger as a whole.  Many of the sources that I will use for this essay will come from popular media and the scout handbook, interviews with the Scout Executive and Mr. Obama, and many political cartoons which have been produced.

The big question is the “so what?”  I think that this is an important issue because it is a glimpse of what is going on in our society as a whole.  We can see easily how this is happening in this one organization but it forces us to see how it is happening everywhere.