Why r folks so afraid of healthy debate?

It is a fact that the Boy Scouts are homophobic.

Might have something to do with your approach. When someone posted a "date my daughter application" as a joke you turned it into an attack on the boy scouts accusing them to be homophobic. That was meant to be a fun post not a debate. If other people are getting a laugh out of something that doesn't harm you, do you really need to be a party pooper and spoil that by creating a debate?

Time and place is everything.

Well 1st, be accurate. I was by far not the 1st to oppose the post. I was just the one people decided to focus on. And, I didn't turn it into anything. I shared information. It is a fact that the Boy Scouts are homophobic. And the fatal flaw of your argument is that "the post wasn't causing harm." I have studied for years about the ill effects that discrimination causes in our society and words and jokes perpetuate attitudes. Lastly, this post is not only referring to the date application post. This post is a response to several previous personal experience in these forums as well as the way I see people treat others.

My roommate is an Eagle Scout and he's been out of the closet since about 1994. It may be that there are members of the board of directors that have homohobic characteristics, maybe.... but "THE BOYSCOUTS' are not an organized group of homophobic individuals- and to say that - is so generalizing and pitted against logic... I mean seriously... how can a 7 year old boy be a homophobe unless he understands what they really even means?

It is also extremely dangerous to cultivate the idea that you have 'the right to not be offended' as that has NOTHING to do with being American at all.

I have also studied the effects of what happens when people decide to give too much power to sticks and stones and not enough emphasis on emotional responsibilty, thickening their skin or choosing their battles but most importantly- understanding and teaching the next generation that Not everyone is going to like you, Not everyone is Nice and You need to learn to deal with it now... otherwise you will embrace a victim mentality and grow up to be someone that does nothing with their life because I got picked on as a kid.

MAN UP. Take the teasing like every other generation in the past has had to do- its part of becoming socially well-rounded and self-preserving. Mama wont always be there to wipe tears when we are picked on, so we have to learn to deal with it instead of trying to stop it. It will never stop.

Guys, seriously, LOOK IT UP, the Boy Scouts discriminate. It doesn't mean that all Boy Scouts do...but it is in the organization's rules.

They are a private organization and have every right to disallow gays being leaders if they want to. You call it being anti-gay, I call it sticking to their principles. If they can have minority only colleges, women only gyms and male only golf clubs then BSA can say they don't want gay leaders. I don't have a problem with women having exclussive gyms or minorities having private colleges. Perhaps people who are not included in these groups should organize their own group that goes by their prefered set of moral stanandards.