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Political Correctness

Too many boys

By Mike Huckabee

May 4, 2018
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You know the problem with the Boy Scouts? Too many boys. At least, that seems to be the brilliant thinking behind the Boy Scout organization’s latest effort to combat declining membership by dropping the word “Boy” and just becoming the gender-neutral “Scouts BSA,” to reflect that they now let in girls, too.

Apparently, none of them ever earned a merit badge in biology or they would know (brace yourself, this will probably get flagged as “hate speech”) boys and girls are different. The move is not only garnering criticism from parents, it’s also being blasted from an unlikely source: the Girl Scouts. While their official statement claimed they were unconcerned, some Girl Scout leaders told the media that they’re also fighting declining enrollment and if the Boy Scouts (oops, sorry: the Generic Scouts) want to attract more members, why don’t they target the 90% of boys who currently aren’t Scouts instead of competing with them for the girls?

This is just the latest in a long series of ever-more leftward PC drift of the Boy Scouts that’s seen them do away with prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance and the traditional Boy Scout oath to placate atheists, and admit gay Scoutmasters and transgender scouts and so on. Say, I wonder if any of that has something to do with the fact that 90% of boys are not Boy Scouts, that membership is half what it used to be, and the number of boys (and their parents) who are giving the group a pass is still rising?

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Nah, it must be the name. Too masculine. That’s toxic, you know.

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Comments 1-16 of 16

  • LORI ANN REGO

    05/05/2018 08:03 PM

    GOV. HUCKABEE I SO AGREE WITH YOU. JUST MAKE A GENERIC SCOUTS. LEAVE THE BOY SCOUTS & THE GIRL SCOUTS THE SAME.

  • Charles Kirkland

    05/05/2018 06:08 PM

    This hurts me to my heart, to see my beloved Scouts go this way. Though I was only in it for a couple of years, I learned so many valuable life lessons. It looks like the war on boys has gotten brutal, and weird.

  • Robert McFate

    05/05/2018 04:06 PM

    Wonder what the merit badge for copulation will look like?

  • Dennis Dingler

    05/05/2018 01:34 PM

    Governor, I share your concern about the pressures of gender neutrality and political correctness. But I respectfully disagree with some of the statements in this article. Our local troop does not resemble what you portray. I went to the national jamboree in 2017. You can still be proud of the Boy Scouts of America. I encourage you to contact the BSA HQ. They will tell you that the organization has not changed for the boys. They will now have a separate, NON-INTEGRATED sub group for girls called Scouts BSA that can earn the same badges that the boys do. They will have their own completely separate den. BSA did not seek to steal any girls to increase enrollment. They were given a choice from their major sponsors to accept this offer or lose their backing. It is a shame that very few churches and local civic groups sponsor their community troop anymore and backed them into this corner. I have the utmost respect for you and trust you will follow up on this to correct it. The media lured everyone in with their malicious attack by only telling a small portion of the truth and everyone is taking the bait.
    PS I think your show on TBN is the best talk show since Ralph Emory. I voted for you in 2016 and would do it again. I find you to be an honorable man with a deep conviction for God and country. May GOD continue to bless your work.

  • James T Bryson

    05/05/2018 12:25 PM

    Just another corporate concession to the gender-mafia. Heaven forbid any organization support the historically grounded reality that boys are boys and girls are girls. The corporate eunuchs (missing some body parts) are only too willing to genuflect to the uber-niche gender benders.

    Individuals, families, and the once great institution, the Boy Scouts, are diminished by this shameful, virtue signal.

  • Karen L. Brinkman

    05/05/2018 11:23 AM

    As a lifetime member of GSUSA, a past Council Chair, a National Volunteer etc, this does not surprise me. BSA has been trying for years to use the term "Scouts" and it is an effort to make donors etc. think the two organizations are one and the same. GSUSA and it's membership and families have not fallen for this and will not fall for it now either. This is about money and declining membership, and nothing else. Although the public may be surprised at this move, those of us who have "green blood" are not surprised - BSA has been angling towards this for many years. GSUSA remains as the top and only organization directed at providing leadership skills to girls and women to prepare them for leadership positions in the our society now and in the future. As an aside - semantics are important - the official statement from BSA says they will now "allow" girls into their program. "Allowing" implies so many negative things- a better word might have been rephrasing that statement to use the word "join". But again I am just a Girl Scout and we do not allow boys into our programming - unless it is the little brother of the leader's daughter and they meet in the leader's home. There have been many "little brothers" over the years. Now I suppose someone will want to make a big deal about this too !

  • Amelia Little

    05/05/2018 10:51 AM

    How come those who pushed for allowing girls in boy scouts didn't spend their time and energy to instead making sure there are the same badge opportunities offered through girl scouts? Is there going to come a time when the requirements for certain badges earned be modified to allow girls to earn them if the requirements are too difficult for them to achieve? There have been memes about girl scouts coming up pregnant after camping trips, etc, which really should be a concern. Will there be separate tents, etc for girls or would that be discrimination if they aren't allowed to have co-ed sleeping arrangements? I guess, in the long run, the enrollment of boys into boy scouts might just increase, not for the necessarily for the scouting opportunities, but because of the social opportunities.

  • Larry Mortland

    05/05/2018 10:48 AM

    NOT too many boys, too many spineless leaders and directors in the organization who have caved-in to the PC attitude and actions of the liberal leftest leaning media and female driven organizations, what Rush Limbaugh refers to as the "chickifacation of America." The BSA has been mismanaged for decades and this is just another poor choice. Maybe the local scout leaders and district/regions should get to the courthouse to reclaim their name and the millions in resources they have paid for, allow the "Scouts" to wander off down the path to their eventual elimination. The "Scouts" should study the U.S. Navy numbers when females were allowed to participate in sea duty assignments. specifically the pregnancy rates and social order/discipline issues during deployments.

  • Lee Myszak

    05/05/2018 10:37 AM

    Maybe there are too many liberals running the BSA or those who are fearful of offending the liberal agenda. I have both daughters and sons and realize that they are different and need time away from each other. I was a Girl Scout leader and my daughters were Girl Scouts. No reason that girls cannot earn badges in areas that are considered by some to be masculine but they can do it in the Girl Scouts. The changes in the Boy Scouts, especially in the area of sex orientation, are why I would not permit my sons, now grown, to have belonged in the Boy Scouts. There is too much pitting females against males in our society and now because of liberal thinking blurring of gender differences. In my opinion Liberal thinking has run amok.

  • Sheila Gleason

    05/05/2018 09:58 AM

    My Son came up through scouting. If girls had been in the troupe I wouldn’t have wanted him in the Scouting program. They went camping every month and I agree with the person that said it would be hard to control some of the results.

  • Terry Nixon

    05/05/2018 09:18 AM

    Mike as usual you have hit the nail directly on the head. This is something I have expected from your common-sense columns. If the intent was to do something like what the Boy Scouts did, why didn't they negotiate with the Girl Scouts about a merger? I think that would have been less of a slap-in-the-face than what they did. Perhaps still not right, but a bit better. I was never in Boy Scouts as in the olden days the little old scoutmaster in my hometown was a dishonest crook with pervert tendencies and my parents knew it!

  • Alan Johnson

    05/04/2018 04:32 PM

    Governor,

    I’m a long time supporter of yours... I volunteered for your campaigns in both 2007-08 and 2015-16 (spent the last week before Iowa primary with y’all in Des Moines) and I’ve been a Scout leader since 1994.

    There has been much confusion regarding recent changes and this most recent announcement. Today’s blog post has errors which contribute to that confusion. I don’t believe that prayer has been removed from Scouting ... that would surprise our troop, whose Chaplains Aide (a youth position) coordinated a worship service for us on our most recent camp out two weeks ago.

    There have long been multiple programs under the BSA organization: Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Venturing, etc. The National Council (office) recently announced that units of girls ages 11-17 will be able to follow the Boy Scout program’s curriculum, including earning the rank of Eagle Scout. Yesterday they announced a name change for the main program (but not the larger parent organization) to “Scouts BSA”, effective February.

    So my youngest son’s troop is still all boys, and the official name of the program will change, but he can still finish working toward his Eagle Scout award as he has been doing for a few years now. Now there will be other units that didn’t exist before, they’ll have girls instead of boys; and there will also be other units of Venturers, both boys and girls ages 14-20 if I recall correctly, following their program... but neither of these directly impact the influence the program has on his growth.

    While I wouldn’t have chosen the name change for the program, I’m not running BSA... from my perspective - and I am not a rookie at this Scout leader thing - the program still provides a faith-included skills, values, and leadership development opportunity that GSUSA never offered my daughters.


  • Gayle Johnson

    05/04/2018 02:10 PM

    As a female I was (and still am) angered when I heard the BOY Scouts organization was now going to be allowing girls to join their ranks. There was/is already a scouting organization for girls; it's called the GIRL scouts. I was in Girl Scouts for a few years; I even earned many badges which were sewn on and proudly worn on a sash. I had the complete outfit. Why do the feminists have to ruin everything!?? I agree with a previous commenter who asks "why can't we let boys be masculine; why do we have to turn them into girls?" I also ask the same question about men; why can't we let men be men; why do we try to turn them into women? (Why are men shaving their chests; I personally think some chest hair is (gasp) sexy.) Back on the topic of the BOY Scouts changing their name to Scouts BSA; it's laughable . . . . . . . doesn't BSA stand for Boy Scouts of America?

  • Lois Holliday

    05/04/2018 01:11 PM

    I think this absolutely disgraceful, why don't these people want boys to be masculine. Let's teach our boys to be respectful to women & their elders instead of making them into girls. Like you said boys and girls are different.

  • Cliff Mathews

    05/04/2018 12:13 PM

    why I am speaking as a former boy scout 1946-1952. I made a Life scout. If I were the age of scouting today I would not be in scouts if girls were
    in my troop. Not that I have any problem with girls. I also would not be a leader. When boys go camping they do not have to be camping with girls. As a leader, I would not want the job of keeping boys from sleeping with the girls. Girls have the Girls scouts and it should stay that way . If a girl should come up pregnant I would not want to be blamed for that. I would not let my son or daughter join the boy scouts with Girls.

  • Cliff Mathews

    05/04/2018 12:10 PM

    why I am speaking as a former boy scout 1946-1952. I made a Life scout. If I were the age of scouting today I would not be in scouts if girls were
    in my troop. Not that I have any problem with girls. I also would not be a leader. When boys go camping they do not have to be camping with girls. As a leader, I would not want the job of keeping boys from sleeping with the girls. Girls have the Girls scouts and it should stay that way . If a girl should come up pregnant I would not want to be blamed for that.

Mike Huckabee

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