Boy Scout delegates will decide next week if the ban on gay Scouts remains or not. Supporters of the ban held rallies in 40 cities on Friday, including Tampa, urging delegates to "Keep sex and politics out of the Boy Scouts" and vote no on the resolution.
The five separate rallies held in the Sunshine State were organized by social conservative John Stemberger of the Florida Family Policy Council. He predicts that if the ban is repealed there will be a "mass exodus not only of major denominations but of common sense parents saying, 'We can't trust scouting anymore.' There's not that moral consistency in the program."
"The reason we believe this resolution is a bad one for scouting is because it brings sex and politics into scouting," says Greg Roe of the Gulf Ridge Council troop #402, the Tampa-based chapter of the Boy Scouts of America. Sounding like officials with the military who defended "don't ask, don't tell," Roe says that the Scouts have always had gays in their ranks, but not openly declared gays.
This article appears in May 16-22, 2013.