On merit

I've read about the boy scouts policy towards homosexuals a lot, and I understand & respect their right of expressive association. If exclusion is not permitted in a free society than groups may be forced by the government to convey points of view that they do not wish to convey. So what point of view are the boy scouts wishing to convey? I bring this policy of the boy scouts up because yesterday I was reading that the Army has promoted Tammy Smith from colonel to brigadier general making her the first openly gay general to serve in the US military. This was interesting for the simple fact that it was uncontroversial. The point of view of the military is only beginning to come around to the idea that prejudice of superficial characteristics is a prerequisite for demerit. It only makes sense that a private organization created to instill such similar values holds similar prejudices that our military has only begun to reverse. Berating the scouts is unproductive, but it should be noted that by conservative estimates 4% of the US population identify as part of the LBGT community, not taking into account those who participate but do not identify. Just counting those identified is a lot of people, much more than that of the entire membership counting both of counselors and scouts in the Boy Scouts of America. 

"People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don't know is what what they do does." ~ Michel Foucault 

The organization knows why it is exclusionary but does it know what this exclusion does to the organization and to the United States as a whole? I think the scouts will find that while their hiking through the post-aughts into the twenty-first century that it might be beneficial to the long term health of their organization if they saunter instead of hike.