Troop 28 of Providence, RI Says the Narragansett Council May Need to Succeed from BSA National

Boy Scout unit should obey its own oath

We agree that the courts should not interfere with our choice of Boy Scout leaders and Scouts themselves because we need not be told to act honorably to include all people of goodwill. Troop 28, Providence, has been led in the past with distinction by both gay leaders and a gay Senior Patrol leader. We do not allow sexual behavior, homosexual or heterosexual, as part of our activities. We conduct these activities within Scouting guidelines for child protection. Sexual orientation presents us with no troubling issues.

Peddling prejudice, on the other hand, is as much a concern to us as to the United Way of Rhode Island. Our Scouts are being teased at school for being a member of a "hate group." Our recruitment efforts are more difficult because parents are reluctant to let their children be influenced to dislike people for what they are.

The Narragansett Chapter characterizes its communication with the business community and the national office as a "dialogue." As the United Way has painfully taught the council, business leaders don't tolerate such equivocation. Neither does Troop 28, Providence. We intend to limit transactions with the council to our usual required fees until it makes a courageous public stand for "inclusion." The council should tell the press and our national leaders that the policy must change, not because the United Way tells the BSA, not because state and federal agencies say so, not because Scouts and their parents want it to be so, but because the Scout Law and Oath say so, clearly.

To act in hypocritical violation of Baden Powell's teaching is to destroy Scouting. Brief consultation with the council historians will reveal that American Scouting started in Rhode Island with an independent charter from Baden Powell, later merging with the Boy Scouts of America.

If the merged organization remains in violation of basic Scout law, it may be the unique duty of the Narragansett Council to declare itself the legitimate seat of the BSA to rectify the situation.

We have no shortage of talented legal counsel in Rhode Island willing to emulate the "Independant Man"' atop the State House in representing the council gratis on such a claim.

Do the unexpected and we will stand behind you.
ALLEN M. DENNISON, M.D.
Providence