Who’s afraid of the Boy Scouts?

I think it’s great that homosexual political activists from coast to
coast have shown their true colors in targeting the Boy Scouts of
America as the focus of all evil in the world — perhaps rivaled only by
Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the common-sense radio counselor.

This is the kind of issue that clarifies what the debate is all
about, how far these extremists would like to go and just how our
society would be transformed if they ever got their way.

It’s incredible to me that any rational person could look at the
targeting of the Boy Scouts and not see that the homosexual activists
behind it are fascists, brown shirts, intolerant sociopaths and evil,
addled-brained reactionaries.

But, believe it or not, there are some people out there who actually
support the harassment of the Boy Scouts but do not recognize from
whence it comes.

Take, for example, Toledo Blade columnist Roberta deBoer.

Last
Saturday, she
wrote about the scheduled protest against the Boy Scouts in her community being organized by Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, with the focus on the president of the chapter, John Hemstreet.

“I see a certain apathy in the entire Toledo community, not just in the gay and lesbian community,” Hemstreet was quoted as saying. Hemstreet was identified as a longtime Scout leader, former Catholic priest and “gay man,” by Ms. deBoer.

What she did not say about Mr. Hemstreet, however, was that he is a convicted child molester.

It wasn’t that deBoer was hiding this fact from her readers. It was just that she didn’t bother to check thoroughly the clippings in her own newspaper archive to ascertain the truth about her source. More on that later, but it’s instructive to see what Hemstreet told deBoer in his first interview.

“In the 20-some years I devoted to Scout leadership, I really did not see or experience a problem with scouting and gays. Nobody talked about it. Nobody, or very few, anyway, came out of the closet. The BSA policy against gays is something that I’ve seen arise within the last half-dozen or so years,” he said.

Keep in mind, Hemstreet pleaded guilty to two counts of gross sexual imposition involving a 10-year-old boy.

“I don’t think I would be able to be a Scout leader today,” he continues, “and I’m not even sure I would want to be. I don’t think I could be true to my beliefs and still embrace an organization that discriminates.”

Only when deBoer’s readers made her aware of this criminal’s history did the columnist do a

mea culpa under the headline, “Right
protest under the wrong leader.” In other words, Hemstreet is right. He’s just not the best spokesman for his cause.

Well, I disagree. I say he is absolutely the right spokesman. Let’s get a grip. One of the reasons homosexuals want so desperately to be Boy Scout troop leaders is because some of them would love to have an opportunity to molest children and recruit more future homosexuals.

That’s right. I said it. I’m not going to tiptoe through the tulips about this. Some homosexuals want to be around children for one reason — to prey on them.

DeBoer, on the other hand, insists “too many people make the mistake of confusing pedophilia with homosexuality, as if the former is somehow an automatic result of the latter.”

No, it’s not automatic, by any stretch of the imagination. But let’s not pretend there is no link, either.

In fact, according to some studies, at least a third of all reported child molestation involves homosexual acts. If we assume, incorrectly, that the homosexual activists and the flawed Kinsey research are correct and 10 percent of the general population is homosexual, clearly homosexuals represent a disproportionate number of child molesters. But that data is not correct — not by a long shot. The percentage of homosexuals in the general population is probably much closer to 2 to 4 percent.

What that means is homosexuals are between 12 times and 16 times more likely to molest a child sexually. Furthermore, one study in Psychological Reports, published in 1985, found that teachers (or those in authority over children) who are homosexual are between 90 to 100 times more apt to involve themselves sexually with pupils than teachers who are heterosexual.

As for deBoer, she’s only partly contrite: “I blame myself entirely for not rifling through the files more rigorously. And I am beside myself that I ever gave space to a man who molested a child, no matter how worthy the Boy Scouts protest.”

Did you catch that? “No matter how worthy the Boy Scouts protest.”

“On that note, by the way, I have not one shred of regret,” she writes. “I believe just as strongly today as I did last week that the Boy Scouts prohibition amounts to discrimination, and Hemstreet’s crime doesn’t change that one iota.”

In other words, don’t confuse deBoer with the facts. This is a matter of religion with her, of faith in the politically correct creed of “diversity.”

Fortunately, that is a false creed with a relatively small following. If the American people have to make a choice between ACT-UP and the Boy Scouts, I have no doubts where their sympathies will lie. So, let’s have the debate. Let’s examine the evidence. Let’s settle this score right here and now.

If you would like to contact deBoer by e-mail, she can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to reach her editors, you can write to [email protected]. Be polite. Be courteous. Be of good cheer. Remember, she’s only part of the problem. And on this fight, the good guys win.