If you had a choice between a woman or a man, who would you choose to babysit or watch over your child?
Probably a woman. She’s more likely to be maternal and attentive and the norms of our society are just set up to make her the better candidate.
Now, if you had to choose between a gay man or a heterosexual man, which would you choose?
According to the Boy Scouts Of America, you need to choose the latter. If you don’t, you might interfere with the core values that it takes to raise boys to men. This idea, that gay men cannot lead a group of young men into manhood, is exactly why the organization is at odds on allowing gays into the troops. But what’s making that argument even more discriminative and disrespectful is the idea that gay men are more likely to assault young men.
Well…according to some “experts.”
According to Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, introducing gay men into the Boy Scouts will heighten sexual assaults within the troops.
[The Boy Scouts] are trying to create an environment that is protective of children. This doesn’t make it more protective. There is a disproportionate number of male on boy — when we get on pedophilia, male on boy is a higher incident rate of that.
The idea that gay men are hypersexual because they are defined by their sexuality isn’t new. But couldn’t the same apply to men? Aren’t men hypersexual…period?
How many heterosexual men are perpetrators of molestation with both boys and girls? How many stories have we heard about boys being assaulted by men who are there to protect them…men who are supposed to be there as pillars in their communities? Preachers, priests, basketball coaches, football coaches…and yes, even troop leaders. And these men were not at all considered to be gay.
In fact, just last fall the Boy Scouts were forced by the courts to release documents identifying 1,900 predators within the organization.
And if gays aren’t allowed in the troops, who were these men?
DETAILS: Scouts Honor! Boy Scouts Of America Considers Dropping Ban On Gay Members
If the organization is going to argue against allowing Scouts to serve as open gay men, let the argument lie on some other archaic, semi-ridiculous ideologies or cultural structures…like religion or masculinity.
But hypersexuality? That’s not a gay thing. That’s a man thing. So allowing gays into the Boy Scouts will do exactly what to the organization that hasn’t already been done? Well, on the upside, knock some sense into them about common “cores” and “values,” like treating people the way you want to be treated.
You’ll always risk the possibility of your child being harmed by anyone, man or woman. But the way society has painted men, especially heterosexual men, and the experiences that we’ve had in our history as a people, dictate my decision not to let a man babysit my children.
This isn’t based off of numbers and statistics…and it may sound a little off-putting…but it seems I’d be taking more of a risk leaving my children in the care of the “brute male.”
So give me the choice between a gay man and a straight man to watch my future children.
I’m going to go for the gay man. Same sex preferences don’t make you hypersexual. They don’t make you want to have sex with everyone who has the same parts as you. And that idea, thrown around by those heterosexual “men” in the Boy Scouts, is obviously calling the kettle black.
And an added bonus? The kids will get a lesson about male bigotry in America and how to accept all people. I don’t think the “very American, heterosexual, real man” of the world could do that for them.
Christina Coleman is the News and Politics Editor at GlobalGrind. Prior to this she was a science writer. That explains her NASA obsession. She crushes on Anthony Bourdain. Nothing explains that.
Follow her on Twitter @ChrissyCole
