[19266] in APO-L
When could a homosexual(or atheist) have joined APO?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ellen Kranzer)
Tue Oct 6 12:03:12 1998
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 12:02:46 -0400
Reply-To: Ellen Kranzer <ellen_kranzer@HARVARD.EDU>
From: Ellen Kranzer <ellen_kranzer@HARVARD.EDU>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
>Alpha Phi Omega has changed its membrship requirements over the years.
>Two of the most well known are the removal of the requirement of having
>been a scout or scouter in 1967 and allowing women to be full members in
>1976. I am in a discussion with a alumnus who asks when our membership
>requirements diverged from those of BSA.
>
>If in 1962,a brother at Stanford who had been a boy scout from age 11-13
>and who had later decided they were Homosexual and stated this in a public
>forum (say stanford's student newspaper), would the National Fraternity
>been able by its own membership policies been able to remove their
>membership?
>
>(I picked Stanford because the environment of the school is such that
>coming out of the closet would have been less stressful than 90%+ of
>other school)
There's another issue in analyizing this problem -- when did the BSA say
that homosexuals and atheists couldn't be members. The formal rule on
homosexuals happened in the last 10 years. I don't know when the ruling on
atheists was. When you cast hypothetical back in time, you need to be
careful about projecting modern conditions on the past that did not exist.
In 1962, homosexuality was viewed as an illness to be cured. Someone who was
a known homosexual probably wouldn't be permitted to be a scout master in
most places in the US.
Very few people thought about people having a sexual orientation. Homosexual
thoughts or behavor in a youth would be regarded as "sick" or "a youthful
phase they'd get over" depending on the community.
Y.I.S.
c.c.
