Oneonta Daily Star, January 17, 2000
Box 250, Oneonta, NY, 13820
(Fax 607-432-5847 ) (E-MAIL: meditor@thedailystar.com)
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Editorial: Rulings will affect our lives (January 20, 2000)

During the next several months, our nation's highest court will rule on issues that affect many ­ if not most ­ Americans. From abortion access to gay Boy Scouts, the justices have taken on issues that make for a particularly interesting docket this term.

Our wish list for the court goes something like this. . .

It's clear to us that an organization such as the Boy Scouts of America is more than just another club. Participation is as much a rite of passage for boys and young men in this country as getting braces or going to the high school prom.

Restricting this activity to "straight" boys is a ridiculous attempt to apply mores of the 1950s to today's far more complex teen-age landscape. Hundreds of high schools across the country are home to "gay-straight alliances." Gay teens ­ and adults ­ are able to live more openly than ever before in this country.

The Boy Scouts, like other segments of our society, must wake up to this reality. Refusing gays membership will only create the bizarre double-standards now visited upon homosexuals serving in the U.S. armed forces.

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Last updated 2/3/2000 by Jean Richter, richter@eecs.Berkeley.EDU