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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (1632)	1/19/2001 11:57:16 AM
From: E	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

I believe there are scoutmasters and assistant scoutmasters who aren't parents. Maybe that shouldn't be the case. I am not a scout expert, just trying to apply some of what seems like common sense to what are probably usually hypotheticals. I suspect if the issue were all about parents, it wouldn't have become a big one. Common sense says to me that it wouldn't be heterophobic for parents to feel uncomfortable at a situation in which heterosexual male scoutmasters or assistant scoutmasters or even older teenaged boy scouts were thrown into close proximity to their girl scout daughters. The idea that "no one should be unchaperoned around children" sounds sensible on the face of it, but seems very un-realworld to me. The second adult doesn't show up some Tuesdays. The second adult drives into town to get marshmallows and gets hung up for a while. The second adult sleeps soundly at night. The second adult is an unobservant or type, or one fearful of making scenes. It's not insane to segregate young girls from horny males, and all males are horny. That's an LOL, don't be insulted, guys. But it's enough of a truism to explain why male teachers with any brains and no ill intent leave their doors open when little girls or teenagers come to their offices after school for help. Many college teachers follow this rule, too, for self protective reasons -- they don't want to be vulnerable to being set up. What I've just said doesn't take up certain questions central to this issue. The position that being gay isn't moral isn't mine, though it is that of many who are weighing in on this issue. I haven't discussed the right of private groups -- those not receiving government funds -- to discriminate (which I believe they have.) I haven't bothered to make each point from both gay and lesbian perspective (but the principle is the same.) I've also introduced an issue, without discussing it, really, that is central and difficult. I would not want 16 or 17 or 18 year old heterosexual young men as the counselors in the camp of a 12 or 13 year old daughter of mine. In the summer camps I know of, counselors have always been of the same sex as the campers. This creates a conflicting set of moral impulses. Gay youths should, fairly, have the same rights as straight ones. Does fairness require that 16 or 17 year old guys who are gay be offered counselorships in scout camps for young boys? Does fairness require that straight 17 year olds be offered counselorships over 13 year olds of the opposite sex?