The policy, if you are gay,
Is changing—changing any day
But wait! It seems there’s now delay
Why wait for change? I cannot say—
They should have done so anyway.

The policy that guides each scout
From honest lad to brutish lout
Was scheduled for a turnabout
Which made some bigots scream and shout
Or rant and rave, or sit and pout.

The scouts, you see, discriminate.
It’s not just fear; it’s not just hate;
It’s policy that bars the gate
Till now. Or, till some future date;
They’ll have to wait to learn their fate.

So now we wait for more reports.
We’ll make our crafts; we’ll play our sports
On soccer fields and tennis courts
In neckerchiefs and khaki shorts…
Just don’t admit the godless sorts.

Some of my students have been scouts. Eagle scouts, even. Great people. I haven’t spoken to a single one who supports the policies banning gays or atheists. Maybe I’m in the wrong right geographical area, but the actual scouts I know are great. (Full disclosure–I quit scouts after one annoying year of Cub Scouts, so I won’t pretend to be able to give an insider’s view) And the little scouts that come to our door for fundraisers seem perfectly fine, and don’t begrudge me my protest against their national policies–indeed, their local policies are inclusive enough that I’d be happy to support them in something that did not send money to the national organization.

Ay, there’s the rub. The national organization. Fucking Bastards.

They are supposed to do right. They had the chance to, decided on a half-assed attempt at not wholeheartedly plunging toward wrong, and then screwed that up and have [as of this writing] chosen to delay making the easiest decision they could have.

One of Spike Lee’s movies gives us the moral message “always do the right thing”. There are times when that message is difficult or convoluted or hidden. Not this time. The right thing has been obvious for some time, and the scouts have avoided it, and are continuing to avoid it, because the wrong thing, apparently, has deep pockets.

And yeah, the current reports have gay scouts well ahead of atheist scouts. Yay, humanity.

Fucking Bastards.