Monday, January 28, 2013

Boy Scouts may end ban on gays

The dam seems like it's ready to break.  NBC News is reporting that the Boy Scouts are close to ending ban on gays.

Not that any delay was ever acceptable, but I have to say that things are moving forward with breathtaking speed.  It has been ten years since I first started writing about gay rights, and back then I never imagined that I would see things actually change so much.  It gives me hope for the world.

It is interesting in retrospect how the debate has evolved.  Here's an excerpt from that first essay:
A related argument is that homosexual couples should not be given societal support because they do not produce children. This argument is also so untenable I'm amazed that anyone can advance it with a straight face. First off, it simply isn't true. Homosexuals are perfectly capable of reproducing, and many do. But even if it were true, if one were to take reproduction as the gold standard of what does and does not deserve societal sanction then infertile people, or people who do not wish to have children, should be prohibited from marrying on those grounds. The argument is just so ridiculous it feels like a waste of time to even bring it up. 

There are no tenable grounds for denying equal rights to homosexuals, just as there are no (and never were any) tenable grounds for denying equal rights to blacks. This one is a complete no-brainer. Why does it have to take so long for society to figure these things out?
Hm, I wonder how much the Internet was a causal factor in speeding up the pace of change.  Certainly seems like a plausible theory.

2 comments:

Don Geddis said...

A related comic from Jonathan Rosenberg, Scenes From A Multiverse

Unknown said...

Now they just need to remove their ban on atheists as well.