Boy Scouts

Five million American kids are members of Girl Scouts of the USA and Boy Scouts of America. As the Boy Scouts of America’s homophobia has become a national issue, we ask: is scouting still relevant? How can scouting be more inclusive? We talk with two young girl scouts, whip-smart troop leader and foreign affairs expert Alisha Bhagat, take a hike with Portland's alternative scouting troop, and discuss "artisinal manliness."

All in just 30 minutes! Listen in! 

This podcast is sponsored by She Bop!

Here's all the feminist news I'm reading today: 

• Prime-time TV is more gender-balanced than current films—according to a massive analysis, 39 percent of prime-time TV characters are women, while we make up only 28 percent of film characters. [Sociologial Images] 

• Two articles about college graduation, since it's the season: Pictuing the enrollment gap between white students and students of color in college and Obama gives a graduation speech that veers into the territory of finger-wagging. [Racialicious, Colorlines] 

• West Virginia has a new law banning sexting between teens, but it could wind up hurting the victims it aims to protect. [RH Reality Check] 

• Are you following what's going on with #FBRape? The campaign launched earlier this week to get companies to stop running ads next to Facebook content that promotes violence against women has had a couple companies respond and no word from several others. [Women, Action, and Media] 

• The Boy Scouts of America are meeting today to decide whether to life their ban on queer scouts—but keep in place their LGBT adults. [Advocate] 

• Bronx environmental activist Majora Carter has fought blight in her community for decades and now says a recent New York Timesprofile of criticisms of her work is off-base and sexist. [The Slant]

• A WalMart security guard called the police on an interracial family because he thought the father must have kidnapped his daughters. [Alternet]   

• If you haven't already seen Hyperbole and a Half's moving personal comic about depression, go read it now. That's an order! [Hyperbole and a Half]

What's on your radar? Add links I missed to the comments!

Today the Boy Scouts of America released a long-awaited decision on whether it will continue its ban on LGBT scouts and adults. The announcement: The Boy Scouts will continue to ban LGBT adults from volunteering, but allow openly gay kids to be scouts. 

Clearly, the logic of this resolution is ludicrous.

Portlander Ethan Jewett has fond memories of growing up as a Boy Scout. But as his son Jackson neared Cub Scout age, Jewett felt that, like many parents, he did not want to enroll his son in an organization that continues to exclude LGBT folks and atheists.

So instead of just joining the campaign to transform the Boy Scouts of America, Jewett and other parents are making their own official scout troop.  The 55^th Cascadia Scouts are open to kids of all genders, sexual orientations, and religions. They already have 45 kids signed up to join the troop on outdoorsy trips. 

“My love of the outdoors all traces back to my scouting experience—Troop 259! I really wanted that for my son,” says Jewett. “I continue to have hope that the Boy Scouts of America will change. But I have a five-year-old son. Time’s up.” 

The Cascadia Scouts are an official scouting organization, merit badges, scarves, and backpacking trips and all. They are not the only independent scouting group. The World Federation of Independent Scouts oversees hundreds of scout troops worldwide that are distinct from the well-known Boy Scouts of America, including several other alternative troops in America.