Boy Scouts Forced to Reveal Scope of Sexual Abuse

I guess the Roman Catholic Church is not the only anti-gay organization that has lots of dirty linen of its own that seldom has seen the light of day. This story out of Seattle (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003849260_boyscouts23m.html) shows that the Boy Scouts - which believes that gays cannot be "morally straight" - has a huge sexual abuse problem of its own. I am not against the Boy Scouts per se - I actually was a scout myself. But, I am dead set against the hypocrisy of telling boys they cannot be members if they are gay, yet keeping the organization's scandalous dirty laundry hidden. Here are highlights from the Seattle Times story:

Finally, after decades of silence, the Stewart brothers grew convinced they weren't alone. In 2003, they sued the Boy Scouts and their former Scoutmaster and won an out-of-court settlement. Four years later, the case has become a landmark in the 97-year history of the Boy Scouts, and the brothers spokesmen for a much larger issue. For the first time, the Boy Scouts of America has been forced to turn over, to the Stewarts' attorneys, its entire archive on sexually abusive Scout leaders.

The previously private records show the Boy Scouts have ejected at least 5,100 adult leaders nationwide for sexual abuse allegations since 1946. And the files reveal that despite efforts to keep potential abusers from joining, the problems persist: In the past 15 years alone, the organization has kicked out leaders for such allegations at a rate of once every other day.

The 45 boxes of files are not public because of a strict court order that prohibits the Stewarts and their lawyers from disclosing specific cases. But a statistical summary of the files, provided by the Stewarts' attorneys, shows the problem is larger than previously known. The secrecy of the files has also meant that the Boy Scouts have kept them from their own sex-abuse advisers, a group of respected experts first convened in the late 1980s to help craft a youth-protection program.

During the past 15 years, the group repeatedly suggested that the Boy Scouts study the files to see whether their prevention measures were working, said one adviser, David Finkelhor, who heads the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. But the Scouts' lawyers rebuffed the recommendation, Finkelhor said.

Since the abuse of the plaintiffs began when they were in second grade, the abuser sounds like a pedophile, not a normal gay man. Another abusive Boy Scout leader was the late Spokane mayor, Jim West, who was forced from office. (See: http://www.spokesmanreview.com/jimwest/story.asp?ID=050505_westmain)