To this day, I go out of my way to make sure I never support the Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, or Girl Scouts of America. The fact that they've turned into an anti-gay hate group just makes me feel like I made the right decision.
Man, that's not fair.
The Boy Scouts was what KEPT me from becoming Boo Radley, in my case. It was pretty much the only social interaction I ever got with anyone because I was such a shut-in in my Middle/High school days...But compared to how I did with the social interaction the rest of the time and the times when I did get along with everyone just fine (which was a majority of the time, otherwise I wouldn't have stuck with it for as long as I did), this was pretty much the only thing keeping me from cracking and becoming a total shut-in crazy feller.
Playing cards, building fires, learning first aid, running from a gigantic bee swarm that some idiot stirred up by stepping on a bee's nest, working on community service projects, learning how to not freeze to death on winter campouts, getting up at 7AM and jumping in a freezing pool at summer camp, and selling popcorn in front of the local Blockbuster. All great times.
Plus the leaders were awesome. Taught me a whole bunch of great stuff, and the guy who was also my den leader in Cub Scouts is really high up there on my "adults who don't bullshit with you who are really, really deserving of respect" list.
I've heard plenty of horror tales from people, but I'm very happy to say that this never happened to me, and I've known people in other troops who got along just fine with the organization. Some of my fondest (read: ones I haven't blocked out to being boring, humiliating, or both) memories from childhood are with the Boy Scouts.[/QUOTE]
My step-brother is in boyscouts and it seems about the same as ever, I guess people hate them because they are "anti-gay". That might be like the policy up above or in other troops but the troop he's in I don't think really gives a shit. Plus even if they were, the good outweighs the bad. There is too much good that you get out of being in a group like boyscouts, my step-brother is a fucking nerd introvert stupid fuck so he needs boyscouts to teach him some actual useful skills and get him out of his room and to stop play video games 24/7 and get some real social interaction.
I have the exact same experience as JJAUG and our wise HoboNinja. In my case, I was also the total shut-in nerd throughout middle school and since I had been a Cub Scout (my dad was even den leader one year), my parents thought it wise to get me into Boy Scouts to hopefully derail any potential Boo Radley-ness. It absolutely worked. While I found the idiots at my high school to be moronic unthinking assholes/whores and loathed every single second I had to spend in that god-forsaken place, when I spent time with the Boy Scouts it was definitely fun.
Instead of fending for yourself in the vicious dog-eat-dog social world of high school, there was guidance and direction. Instead of floundering around like a lazy teen just wheedling away the hours in boredom or just slouched watching TV, I was out actually
doing things. Instead of my only experience with socializing being incredibly horribly negative, I was interacting with people I had no need to fear and could actually relax with.
So Ash, the experience you had with the Boy Scouts I had with high school itself. The Boy Scouts were a way to get away from that shithole and not let it turn me into some pissed-off loner Columbine type. It sounds like you're letting your bad experience with a select few cloud your judgment of the organization as a whole; as for the rest of you who absolutely must take some kind of moral stand against the Boy Scouts for being "anti-gay", that's your prerogative but I truly question the morality of standing against a group that seeks to turn teens into upstanding young men as opposed to criminals, loners, or worse.
