Letters: Scouting should stick to the basics

Re “Scouting’s error,” Opinion, May 22

It boggles the mind that the Boy Scouts of America wraps itself up in this bigoted view of homosexual leaders when in many other ways it has always been very inclusive.

James Dale’s piece expresses the view of a gay Eagle Scout; in the May 21 Wall Street Journal, an Op-Ed article spoke to the absurdity of this whole mess, proposing that the Boy Scouts should be agnostic concerning sex and stick to the basic tenets of Scouting.

The entire focus should be on the material inside the Boy Scout Handbook. The Scout law, oath and motto are exemplary guides to model our behavior. There isn’t a single reference to sexual orientation in the teachings of the Boy Scouts. Character counts above all.

Joseph R. Terrazas Jr.

San Marino

The writer is a former scoutmaster.

What does it mean to be a man? Are there still manly virtues and a manly character, or are the terms to be expunged from our thoughts and dictionaries? That is what gay activists like Dale, who was expelled from the Scouts, would like us to do, camouflaging their agenda in false analogies like civil rights and social progress.

No, the Boy Scouts of America should hold fast to its core beliefs. So should society.

G.V. Climaco

Brea

Dale is certainly correct that the prohibition of gay Scout leaders is toxic. But what he neglects to bring to the forefront is that being gay is not synonymous with pedophilia. A pedophile is a pedophile, whether he is straight or gay.

I don’t have the solid numbers, but I would guess that there are many, many more straight men molesting little girls than there are gay men molesting little boys.

Peggy Miller

Pacific Palisades

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