Obama: Boy Scouts should lift gay ban (video)

2/3/2013 6:01pm by 12

Sometimes words matter.  This is one of those times.

In a pre- Super Bowl interview with 60 Minutes, President Obama reiterated his support for gay Scouts.  This was pre- Super Bowl, so it probably had a huge audience.

This comes on the heels of the news this week that the Boy Scouts are reconsidering their ban on gay scouts and gay scout masters.  Though what the Scouts are actually considering is something less than a full lifting of their gay ban.  Instead of having a nationwide ban, such as they have now, the Scouts are considering leaving it up to individual Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops to determine if they want to ruin the lives of young children because the adults running the organization are all a bunch of bigots.

Lifting the ban at the federal level is a step in the right direction, but it’s not going to stop the boycott of the Scouts.  Any corporation that gives money to the national Boy Scouts of America will be funding discriminatory Scout troops, quite possibly in violation of that organizations own non-discrimination policies.  So if the Boy Scouts are really considered about national funders and corporations dropping them, then they need to institution a nationwide non-discrimination policy, and stop playing games.

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@aravosis | Facebook | Google+. Editor of AMERICAblog, joint JD/MSFS from Georgetown, worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. A frequent TV pundit, he has been on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Full bio and .

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  • vanhellslinger

    Mortify Your Senses against Gay Rights

    In “To The Priests Our Lady’s Beloved Sons” A Marian Movement of Priests publication, 1993 Supplement The Holy Mother speaks at Sant’ Omero (Teramo) May 1, 1993 (She speaks to Reverand Stefano Gobbi) and The Mother of God said “Mortify Your Senses”. I.E. Impose hardship on self to attempt to subdue the body of desire and passions by self-imposed disciplines, hardships, abstinence from pleasure. Colossians 3:5 “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed which is idolatry.”NIV

    It doesn’t take much intelligence to understand that homosexuality is like bestiality, sodomy, incest, molestation, rape, polygamy, sexual slavery and many more of the unnatural, unacceptable, negative, and non-family orientated sex acts and promiscuity in general are all bad for humankind. AIDS/HIV, MRSA, HPV/Cancer, EIDS (Emerging Infectious Diseases), all the common Sexually transmitted diseases that are as we speak mutating and hybridizing into more deadly disease is cause and reason to refuse Gay Rights. Whatever it takes to protect the human race is necessary, invoke all sources to block gay rights and this New Advance of the Sexual Revolution. Forget your cousins and neighbors son or daughter is gay because to protect all humanity from the next coming plague will benefit more kids than any support of gay rights will. You saw how many died from AIDS and there are potentially millions of infectious diseases in other species of plants and animals that at anytime could like AIDS become a reality. Stop the insanity and stop gay rights. Mortify your sexual desires with discipline and self control and there will be less crime and a better world to live in.

    • FLL

      You forgot a more pertinent verse from the New Testament:

      “Hear ye, fundie Xtian wingnut! Get thyself to Home Depot; therein purchase some large nails and a couple of two-by-fours, and then go crucify yourself. In that manner, shall ye become just like your Lord.”

      Didn’t want you to forget the Bible verse that fits your situation exactly, vanhellslinger. Aren’t I helpful? You’re welcome.

      • FLL

        Oh, no! My fundamentalist Xtian penpal deleted his comment threatening humanity with death by a thousand STD plagues if people don’t oppose gay rights! Americablog moderators,
        I feel so abandoned. I try to be helpful to my Xtian wingnut penpals… but they flee! They flee! Was it something I said?

        • Don Chandler

          it was a classic internet pontificator. we could have provided much needed help, if not heaps of ridicule. I loved the use of the word “mortify.”

          • FLL

            Oh, that’s right. He or she wanted us to mortify the flesh “against gay rights.” It sounds like one of those self-flagellation things from the religious frenzies during the Middle Ages. ROTFL.

            • Don Chandler

              Turns out it’s mere anti-gay spam. It repeats itself several times going a month back–hit and run crap.

  • hollywoodstein

    You know, that was actually a pretty good football game.

  • pippinpippin

    That’s a great photo of the prez– love that thoughtful look.
    OK, so my appreciation isn’t entirely intellectual.

  • Brian in NYC

    Oh Good God this had absolutely nothing to do with 60 Minutes which was preempted tonight due to the Super Bowl; this interview was broadcast on CBS’s pregame show.

  • FLL

    Let’s face it, the entire American nation will spend the next five months lobbying and performing for Justice Kennedy and Chief Justice Roberts. These two justices will be carefully surveying the cultural landscape around them as they prepare the decisions in the DOMA and Prop 8 cases that they will hand down in June. Every little bit helps (or hurts, as the case may be). The President’s statement on the Boy Scouts is fine, but there is no substitute for a DOJ amicus brief in opposition to Prop 8.

  • S1AMER

    Thank you, Mr. President. You made this a better day for thousands upon thousands of American kids.

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