They came, they tied knots, they got wet. The quadrennial Boy Scout Jamboree assembled in the bucolic central Virginia countryside of the U.S. Army base Fort A.P. Hill, July 23-Aug. 1. Then it seemed as if most of the by-now scruffier looking horde moved north to descend on the tourist sights of Washington, D.C.
The kids and leaders tried to downplay the steadily growing controversy surrounding the policy of discrimination against gays. And they were helped by the decision of Scouting for All to stay away and not politicize the Jamboree with a demonstration. But that did not stop Newsweek from putting the controversy on its cover.
President George W. Bush was scheduled to fly in on Sunday to address the khaki clad teens. But a torrent of rain grounded the presidential chopper. Confronted with a free afternoon the President turned to ... show tunes. He and the first lady took in a revival of Kiss Me Kate, created by that gay bon vivant Cole Porter, at the Kennedy Center.
Televangelist Pat Robertson, who once prophesied that a hurricane would strike Orlando for flying rainbow flags on a main thoroughfare, offered no interpretation of the meaning of the meteorological event or the President's use of time.
An internal report leaked to Scouting for All indicates that membership is down 3.6 percent in the Boy Scouts and 5 percent in the Cub Scouts from a year ago. BSA is stating that their decline in membership is only about half that size.
An article in the Dallas Morning News in early July documented how several Scout councils across the nation recently have sold land that they own, often without public notice that the land was for sale or that the transactions had been completed. Some of the campgrounds will be clear-cut for timber, others will be developed into housing. Some question whether the commercial transactions are within the spirit and in some cases the letter of how and why much of the property was donated to the Scouts.
In Boston, the Minuteman Council of some 18,000 Scouts announced that it had unanimously adopted a resolution that bars discrimination on a number of counts, including sexual orientation. It is implementing a kind of "don't ask, don't tell" policy on all matters dealing with sex and sexual orientation. It marks a more aggressive opposition to the national policy by Councils representing many large urban areas.
In Miami, the United Way brokered an agreement between the South Florida Council and gay advocates that has the two groups agreeing to work together to train leaders in working with youth who identify as gay. The Council also pledged to fight any who misuse its name, specifically with regard to far right efforts to overturn local human rights ordinances.
"The surrender in south Florida may be the Boy Scouts' Waterloo," said diminutive homophobe Gary Bauer.