Boy Scout child porn guy defended gay discrimination
Tue Mar 29, 2005 at 02:00:25 PM PDT
How's this for hypocrisy. Douglas S. Smith Jr. was charged with possession of
child porn. Specifically, he had child porn of boys (i.e. other males) in his possession.
The national director of programs for the Boy Scouts of America has been charged with receiving and distributing child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's office here told NBC News on Tuesday.
Douglas S. Smith Jr. was charged with one felony count of having photos that show "minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct."
Sources in the U.S. Attorney's office told NBC that Smith was expected to plead guilty.
The images were of young boys and the investigation started in Germany, the sources added.
Now that we have that out of the way, let's look at a few other issues.
Update [2005-3-29 18:0:31 by Lipo]:I'm not trying to connect pedophelia/child abuse with homosexuality, just trying to point out the hypocrisy of a man who can discriminate against gays in the name of morals and two hours later immerse himself in the underworld of child pornography. I just want to make that clear because I was posting this while I was on the phone. Apologies for any confusion
First, the Boy Scouts of America actively discriminates against against gays. We're all well aware of their legal battles to secure their right to openly discriminate. Then the male director of programs for the openly gay hating Boy Scouts of America is busted with child porn of boys involved in sex acts.
Now one would assume that this guy at the least has a latent, unfulfilled bisexuality stirring somewhere in the deep dark parts of his brain. The question that popped into my mind when I was reading the post at Pam's House Blend was whether or not he supported the Boy Scout's anti-gay agenda. Well, needless to say it didn't take a whole lot of searching.
First, I found this letter on the Boy Scouts of America Corporate Legal Times website from a Mr. Bruce Collins:
>I AM an Eagle Scout. My mother was a den mother and my father a pack leader and an assistant scoutmaster. A Cub Scout at the age of 8, I was a patrol leader, senior patrol leader, junior assistant scoutmaster and summer camp assistant scoutmaster. I was selected for the Order of the Arrow and served in the National Scout Service Corps at the New York World's Fair in 1965.
I joined the Explorer Scouts and even attended a national Explorer delegate conference. Scouting gave me opportunities, taught me useful skills and imbued me with many positive values.
James Dale was a Boy Scout who had basically the same involvement in the organization as I had. The only real difference between Dale and me is that he is gay and I am not.
Dale was a 19-year-old assistant scoutmaster when the Scouts discovered he was a homosexual in 1990. They kicked him out. He sued, claiming discrimination. The case, BSA v. Dale, went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in a 5-4 decision that the Scouts had a First Amendment right of expressive association that allowed them to choose their leaders.
Decided in 2000, the case inspired other discrimination claims, and ultimately changed the organization. [...]
There's more, but you get the drift. Luckily for me, just below this letter was a response, written by one Douglas S. Smith Jr.:
Dear Editor:
Bruce Collins is mistaken when he calls Boy Scouts a "fundamentally different" organization from the one he joined 40 years ago. ["An Eagle Scout Takes Issue With Group's Politics" July, p. 7]. Boy Scouts is the same organization with the same values and goals. What is fundamentally different, however, is our times.
Some intolerant elements in our society want to force scouting to abandon its values and to become fundamentally different. They want scouting to forego its constitutional rights, affirmed in 2000 by the Supreme Court in BSA v. Dale, and adopt fundamentally different values from the ones that helped shape the character of Mr. Collins and 106 million other young men over the past 94 years.
It bothers Mr. Collins that scouting is defending itself, even though he acknowledged that it has been "dragged into" the "culture war." He says the tone of our legal-issues web site, bsalegal.org, is defensive. The site does seek to defend our values and to inform the public about the three-decade-long legal assault on scouting. That we need a legal-issues web site is testament to the fact that our constitutional rights are under attack.
Clearly, Mr. Collins longs for a time when the Boy Scout organization could give its undivided attention to the "good stuff" of Scouting: "camping and life skills ..." So do we. Mr. Collins would do well to communicate his displeasure to those directing their discriminatory assault against his beloved Boy Scouts -- the ACLU.
Douglas S. Smith Jr.
National Director of Program
Boy Scouts of America
Now I don't know about anybody else, but to me, that sounds like he's defending, quite vehemently but respectfully, the BSA's anti-gay position. Defending an anti-gay agenda is bad enough, but then going home and rubbing one out to pictures of young boys having sex?
I'll let you connect the mental dots on this one.
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