Openly Gay Scout Leaders Less A Threat than Closeted Scout Leaders and Catholic Priests

As long time readers of this blog know, time and time again the sexual predators who prey on children and youths are not well adjusted openly gay individuals.  No, it's the closeted Catholic priests who have been warped psychologically by the Church hierarchy's obsession with all things sexual, especially gay sex, and closeted Republicans, and conservative religious denomination pastors (e.g., Southern Baptists) who are the true threats to children and youth.  Normal, well adjusted gays simply do not need to prey on children to fulfill their sexual fantasies and to find sexual partners.   Yet, but barring openly gay scoutmasters, the Boy Scouts of America have unwittingly agreed to continue to provide unfettered opportunity to closet cases who pose the most significant risk of sexual molestation to children and youths.  Andrew Sullivan looks at this reality:

YouGov finds that a majority of the public agrees with the Boy Scouts’ new policy of accepting gay troops but banning gay troop leaders.  

I suspect the issue has been clouded by the impact of the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic church and understandably greater nervousness about allowing boys to be supervised by grown men away from their parents. But although that’s understandable, it’s irrational. Openly gay scoutmasters are far less likely to abuse boys than closet case “bachelors” – because they are more emotionally and sexually adjusted. And closet-case “bachelors” will remain in the Scouts, while the less damaged ones are purged.

This is not to say that all closet-case bachelors are would-be molesters (many have, for decades, channeled their repressed sexuality into completely ethical and moral leadership for boys, including the Boy Scouts founder, Robert Baden Powell, who is now widely regarded as bisexual, if not gay).

The Christofascists and anti-gay hate groups may like to depict gays as sexual predators, but legitimate research shows that it is not the gays who do the bulk of the sexual molesting.  It's the ostensible straight males - many of who are married to women - who are the real threat to children and youths.   The Boy Scouts of America may have pandered to public opinion, but their action did nothing to make young scouts safer from molestation.