Scouting Defenders Spark Lively Volley on Standards

I joined the Boy Scouts in 1934, 58 years ago. At that time, we recognized that part of the Scout oath, “to keep myself . . . morally straight,” as meaning that we would walk “a straight and narrow moral path” (“Conservatives in O.C. Come to Scouts’ Aid,” Nov. 16).

In the 1930s and 1940s, the word straight did not even refer to a heterosexual. The word gay did not define a homosexual: “Our hearts were young and gay.”

If Scouting officials now define “morally straight” to mean no homosexuals, then I believe that they are interpreting the Scout oath in a way not originally intended by the Boy Scouts of America.

FRANK E. TAYLOR

Orange