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Via evolving parenthood experience, it's recently come to my attention that the Boy Scouts no longer exist, but rather a co-ed institution called "Scouting America". Boys and girls welcomed equally. No scout troop for males only.
Girl Scouts? Same as it ever was. Girls only.
How is this not a layup discrimination lawsuit? I can't even find any online discourse about it; any attempt to Google the topic simply directs me to the scouts "anti-discrimination" efforts.
edit: I was tragically unaware that Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are two independent organizations. The naming structure led me to assume that they operated under a common parent organization, and we all know what happens when you assume...
It is sex discrimination, it was before the change (Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are inevitably different). But I think it’s good discrimination: men-only and women-only social spaces are important, and objectors could create a third Coed Scouts.
The problems here are 1) it’s unfortunate irrespective of whether it’s justified, and 2) a new Boy Scouts would probably encounter discrimination lawsuits moreso than the existing Girl Scouts, which means the law isn’t fair (yes, “both rich and poor (or here, popular and unpopular) can sue each other” is unfair when there’s inadequate reparation for illegitimate lawsuits.)
Hegseth is trying to change Scouting America (Motte discussion). I think instead he should, and he really should, re-create the Boy Scouts (letting Scouting America become the coed scouts, then maybe or maybe not fade away).
There exist "Baden-Powell Scouts" who are trying to do a kind of RadTrad fundamentalist boy scouts that hews closer to the original Scouting for Boys text. I'm all for competition.
I decry as woke the urge to sue the Boy Scouts for the (in)action of the unrelated third party Girl Scouts. That is wokeness personified: losing the battle and filing a lawsuit to make Mommy Government force you to play with me the way I want to play. Using the tools of wokeness to attempt to advocate for boys isn't anti-woke, it's reifying the woke framework that Mommy will force everyone to play by Mommy's rules of fairness.
And anyway, the reason that Scouting chose to allow (but not require) failing troops to choose a coed model has to do with the massive infrastructure that Scouts has as the incumbent. Scouting has huge land holdings, massive organizational advantages.
If Pete wants to start the Hegseth Youth, that would be great. And perhaps if you build it they will come. But there's a lot of building that needs to happen before it can seriously compete.
I was at my parents house reading the Sunday Times with them yesterday. The Ethicist column featured a man who wanted to contact the principal at his nine year old daughter's school because a group of boys playing soccer after school didn't let her join the game. It filled me with a deep sense of despair. I don't care which side of the gender divide uses the tool of forced interaction: it's wrong and bad and ruins our children's lives and futures.
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