The reaffirmed ban against gay participation in The Boy Scouts of America is dispiriting. I hope that local troops ignore the ban and continue to foster safe environments and adventurous, educational times for school-age boys no matter their orientations.

Back in the day, my brother and I were boy scouts, in Fairport, NY’s Troop 209. We both made the rank of Eagle, though I was nowhere near the ingenious camper my brother was. We were each known, though, as story-tellers around the fire. And the crowd of boys around the fire with us, in real fellowship, could not have been assembled the same way in the schools, where cliques and ethnic, socioeconomic status often erected dividing walls between us.

Update: Even Boy Scouts Of America’s PR Firm Opposes Anti-Gay Discrimination.