Return Your Eagle Scout Badge

Mark Engler @ Dissent Magazine - Are you disgusted and outraged by the recent decision of the Boy Scouts of America to reaffirm its exclusion of gay members from the organization? You're not alone. Some of scouting's highest-ranking participants feel the same way. And they're sending back their Eagle Scout badges as an act of protest.

In late July, as the New York Times explained, the BSA upheld "its longtime policy of barring openly gay boys from membership and gay or lesbian adults from serving as leaders....The exclusion policy 'reflects the beliefs and perspectives' of the organization, the Boy Scouts said in a news release from its headquarters in Irving, Tex."

Invoking your "beliefs and perspectives" to justify discrimination makes for a sorry display. But it has also prompted some dignified defiance.  Read more.