Gay Boy Scout Ban: GOP Congressman Claims Supporting Overturning It Makes You a "Bully"

Impact

The ban on gay individuals from joining the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) will hopefully come to a long-overdue end today. The secretive vote of 1,400 volunteer leaders from the Scouts' 270 councils is expected sometime Thursday afternoon. Though the BSA will still ban gay leaders from partaking in the nation's most recognizable youth group, overturning the decades-long discriminatory ban would send a much needed positive signal to gay youth. 

Wherever you find discussions of gay marriage, gays in the military, or gays in society ...well, really just throw in the word "gay" anywhere and some Republicans are likely to flip their lids. Representative Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) proves this point in a speech he gave on the House floor on May 22. 

Bridenstine spent the duration of his speech lambasting the left for intolerance of the gay Boy Scout ban by the BSA. Yes, intolerance of intolerance must come to an end. Too long have our intolerant friends on the right been ridiculed for their intolerance.

Here's some of what he had to say, special thanks to Towleroad for the transcript:

Some of us in America still believe in the concept of sexual morality, that sex is intended for one man and one woman within the institution of marriage. Organizations that hold this philosophy and promote it among our youth should be commended, or at least you would think, tolerated. Unfortunately, the intolerant left bullies and browbeats private organizations like the Boy Scouts into accepting their philosophy. Notice they didn't start their own organization. They went after the Boy Scouts of America.

The left's agenda is not about tolerance, and it's not about diversity of thought. It's about presenting a worldview of relativism, where there is no right and wrong. Then using the full force of the government to silence opposition and reshape organizations like the Boy Scouts into instruments for social change.

To my friends on the left, this is not tolerance. but here's the good news about true tolerance. The most tolerant one of all has the ability to redeem us all.

I've got some great news for this guy, I don't have to tolerate your discrimination, I don't have to tolerate your antiquated way of thinking, and I certainly don't have to tolerate your inability to progress to a view on humanity that was made up thousands of years ago by dudes in robes. You cannot simultaneously speak about tolerance while expressing your own intolerance; it just invalidates your entire argument. Does no one else find it a little rich that this guy is talking about diversity of thought while actively showing he is incapable of it? The entire speech is like a giant recursive loop of crap that just craps out more crap.

No one should have to "tolerate" discrimination based upon their sexual orientation. The Boy Scouts of America are voting on this privately, and as we've already seen, there's passionate debate about the ban on both sides. Those who feel that the ban should be kept in place are making their voices heard loud and clear. So you can expect those of us who feel just as strongly about overturning that ban to make our voices equally loud