Obama: The Boy Scouts Should Admit Gay Members

The President weighs in on the Boy Scouts and homosexuals, and I find myself agreeing with him.

The Boy Scouts are, of course, a private organization and set whatever membership standards they want, but they seem to be moving toward acceptance of gays and that’s a good thing. Because there’s no good reason not to, other than unfounded and spurious notions about homosexuals being unsafe around children and outright bigotry.

But the Boy Scouts also represent another lesson for Americans. We’re often quick to jump to public policy solutions for every issue. There is always a push to pass “human rights laws” to outlaw discrimination by private organizations and businesses. The Boy Scouts, specifically, have been the target of discrimination lawsuits and here in North Dakota we’re considering laws expanding existing anti-discrimination laws to gays.

Yet, as we’re seeing with the Boy Scouts, such laws are unnecessary. Social pressure is enough. The Boy Scouts are looking to, and probably will, adapt to our changing national values lest they see their proud organization shrivel into irrelevance.

It just goes to show that not every social problem needs a public policy solution.