Scouts' Decision on Gays Meets Acceptance in Founder's Hometown

Scouts²' Decision on Gays Meets Acceptance in Founder's Hometown

OTTAWA, ILLINOIS—

For years, Boy Scouts from across the United States made an annual pilgrimage to Ottawa, Illinois, which proudly promotes itself as the “Home of the Founder” of the Boy Scouts of America, William Dickson Boyce.

“He lived here during the formative years of the Boy Scouts, and he is buried here,” said Mollie Perrot, executive director of the Ottawa Historical and Scouting³ Heritage Museum, where the history of the Scouting movement worldwide is on display.

Perrot knows about change: She was once a Boy Scout¹ leader at a time when women were just being accepted into the organization.

“And it was still pretty much a men's club," she said. "But there are a lot of women leaders today, and that’s changed. Initially⁴, it was 'getting over the humps,' you might say.”

Perrot believes the Boy Scouts will also get over the humps expected following the organization's decision to accept gay leaders.

"They may experience the same thing the women experienced, ostensibly, some little bit of ostracism⁵, and then acceptance," she said.

Matt Skelly, a former Scout leader, said he thought the organization would "move beyond the political and social side of it, and come back to what Scouting is all about, and that’s the young men and women it serves — to make them better as citizens of our country and the world.”

The decision on adult gay leaders, in Skelly’s view, was inevitable⁶.  Involved with Boy Scouts since he was 7 years old, he said Scouting’s focus has never been, and never should be, on its leaders' sexual orientation⁷.

“Ideally, the lifestyles of the leaders should not come into play, but that’s an ideal world,” he said.

Perrot said she thought the changes wouldn't end there.

“Boy Scouts does not embrace atheists either, and there’s pressure from externals" on the subject, she said. "I think it’s going to force a lot of changes in that regard.”

Boyce died in 1929.  Perrot said she couldn't speak for how Boyce would feel about the decision on gays, but she has spoken to his family.

“Part of his family has said that he would accept, and I have contact with another family member who said he would not,” she said.

But whether Boyce would accept it or not, it is now the official policy of the Boy Scouts of America.

1 scout   

n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索

参考例句：

• He was mistaken for an enemy scout and badly wounded.他被误认为是敌人的侦察兵，受了重伤。
• The scout made a stealthy approach to the enemy position.侦察兵偷偷地靠近敌军阵地。

2 scouts   

侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员

参考例句：

• to join the Scouts 参加童子军
• The scouts paired off and began to patrol the area. 巡逻人员两个一组，然后开始巡逻这个地区。

3 scouting   

守候活动，童子军的活动

参考例句：

• I have people scouting the hills already. 我已经让人搜过那些山了。
• Perhaps also from the Gospel it passed into the tradition of scouting. 也许又从《福音书》传入守望的传统。 来自演讲部分

4 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

5 ostracism   

n.放逐；排斥

参考例句：

• Until I emigrated to America,my family and I endured progressive ostracism and discrimination.我的家庭和我自己忍受着变本加厉的排斥和歧视直到我移居美国。
• For the first time in her life the import and horror of social ostracism flashed upon her.她生平第一次突然想到遭受社交界排斥的意义与可怕。

6 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

7 orientation   

n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍

参考例句：

• Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
• The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。