What a difference time makes in Mike Huckabee's gay crusades. Not. The former politician, coddler of bigot chicken and current gay fear mongering radio wingnut pandered on Saturday to a nation of dipshit dads, including at least one from Georgia aligning himself with a no gay, no way contingent in Atlanta. Rested from starting the conservative “eat at Chick-fil-A” buy-cott of 2012, Huckabee helped launch an anti-gay Boy Scouts of America alternative.
The Trail Life USA unveiled its new logo and exclusionary vision at a Nashville hotel on Saturday to a reported 1,200 kids, parents and former Boy Scouts leaders from 44 states at a weekend conference. The founders and the most vocal of the crowd are homophobic dads who knee-jerk yanked their sons out of BSA after it voted to allow openly gay troops. The rest, like Huckabee and inexplicably a professional George W. Bush impersonator, were there for the spotlight created by the proposed “alternative” scout lifestyle.
Not that all Boy Scouts alternatives are anti-gay by definition. But Trail Life is. Not that all Christian or religious organizations for kids are bad. But Trail Life is. Founded by dads icked out by the thought of their sons fraternizing with gay kids or gay parents, Trail Life requires all troops and potential chapters to sign a “Statement of Faith.” Which it really isn't. More like a statement of gay exclusion and discrimination.
Rule No. 1? Reserve “all sexual activity for the sanctity of marriage; marriage being a lifelong commitment before God between a man and a woman.” And there it is. Rules No. 2 and 3, both about God and morals, are really just backups to make No. 1 not feel so lonely. Like a cuddly campfire on a cold night.
Other requirements for chapter hopefuls include connecting to a church. Once a pastor or a board of elders OKs the chapter, a church representative must be appointed to oversee that the chapter always strictly follows the “Statement of Faith.”
“This will be better than the best has ever been,” Huckabee reportedly said during his launch convention speech, according to The Trail Life. The gathered goonies were apparently enrapt as they prepared to bring the message of The Trail Life back to their communities.
NBC was there, and spoke with a Georgia dad who just wasn’t having a gay-tolerant Boy Scout for a son.
Jeff Rayno, 51, a field researcher from Pooler, Ga., said he’d like to lead a troop in the new organization. His son Daniel, 14, is a Boy Scout, and Rayno, who believes that homosexuality is a sin, didn’t want him to be exposed to gays or discussion about sexuality through the program.
“I’m very excited that we can be starting a new thing that’s historical in nature that will be talked about years from now as being a cultural shift,” he said. “People are drawing somewhat of a line in the sand, saying that we have something that we believe in, we have a right to associate with people that think the same way that we do.”
That they do, Jeff. That they do. So do the metro Atlanta Trail Life chapter discussion boards. And it sounds eerily like that Atlanta contingent of no-gay, no-way Scouts pastors and parents. You know, this sanctimonious pastor in the burbs, the even crazier one, and the hate-spewing Marietta one. Oh and that lunatic mom arguing with Atlanta's smart gays. We’re also happy to remind you that some gay friendly churches in Atlanta will not be among the Trail Life discriminators, including those Druid Hills Baptists who use their freedom of association for good, not evil.
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