Kearney, Missouri
2:
Missouri Boy Scout Kicked Out of Camp for Being Gay
A Missouri Boy Scout says everything he has worked for over the past 10 years is gone because he finally admitted who he really is.
Eric Jones says he was kicked out of a Boy Scout summer camp where he worked because he is gay.
Jones, 19, says he knew what the Boy Scouts of America stood for. He even says the Scouts made him who he is today. However, his title, his job and his Boy Scout honor were stripped away on Sunday when he told the director at the camp where he worked in St. Joseph, Missouri, that he is gay.
In second grade, Eric Jones took the Boy Scout oath, to do his best, obey the scout law, and keep himself morally straight.
“Everything in the scout oath, everything is standing up for what’s right,” said Jones, who says that for more than a decade he wore his scouting uniform with pride. “Scouting was an outlet for me. An activity. Something I love and I was passionate about.”
At 17, Jones earned the rank of Eagle Scout, and this summer he was working at a scout summer camp in St. Joseph.
“That’s really one of my passions is helping other people, scouting has taught me that,” said Jones.
But Jones says part of helping other people and living up to the scout oath meant he needed to be open about who he is.
“You know this is an organization that is focused on middle school and high school and to tell them that they have to hide who they are of course puts even more stress on them,” said Jones.
(snip)
“This is having an effect on our youth,” said Jones. “You are seeing it. If anything, have some kind of compassion for them. Imagine if this was your child or a neighbor, a close friend that was going through this.”
Mr. Jones didn’t just discover his LGBTQMIALOLPLPLTHness. And he had to have known about the BSA’s policy on such matters since he was old enough to know that “gay” doesn’t mean “happy” anymore. The differential in time between him picking an orientation and his outing himself to his superiors is a time when he was being deceitful and un-Scout-like.
“Tell them they have to hide…more stress on them…having an effect on our youth.”
Look at the other side of this coin. You talk about stress and hiding and having an effect? This is the era of Jerry Sandusky. What sort of cow would the parents of these Scouts at the summer camp where he is a counselor have had when they found out that their sons are sometimes naked with a homosexual man with authority within close quarters? Yes, I know, no real link between male homosexuality and pedophilia, any correlation is statistical noise. But not everybody knows that.