[19267] in APO-L
Re: When could a homosexual(or atheist) have joined APO?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Randy Finder)
Tue Oct 6 12:17:17 1998
"Reply-To: "
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 12:16:04 -0400
Reply-To: Randy Finder <naraht@DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU>
From: Randy Finder <naraht@DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU>
To: APO-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
In-Reply-To: <2.2.32.19981006160246.007066bc@camail1.harvard.edu>
On Tue, 6 Oct 1998, Ellen Kranzer wrote:
> >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.
I think having leaders sign the Declaration of Religious Principles
(in which you say you believe in a god (not quite sure of the exact
phrasing)) goes back farther than the first lawsuit over gays (1980?), but
may in fact have not gone back to 1962
>
> 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.
Agreed, which is why I posited a student who having been a scout before
he understood that he was attracted to other males. I picked Stanford (UC
- Berkeley would have also probably worked) becuase of all of the schools
to have APO chapters in 1962, I felt that it would have had the least
negative reaction from fellow students.
> 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.
There is no question in my mind that such a student would never had
admitted it publicly at Vanderbilt (To pick a reasonably old chapter at a
religiously run school in the south (no offense to Theta Mu intended))
>
> Y.I.S.
> c.c.
YiLFS
Randy Finder
>
--
Leadership, Friendship and Service - Alpha Phi Omega
