N.Y. Boy Scout earns all 121 merit badges

[jillian]

Amazing young man.

N.Y. Boy Scout earns all 121 merit badges


NEW YORK (AP) — A Long Island teenager has earned all 121 merit badges offered by the Boy Scouts of America. It's an accomplishment the local arm of the organization calls "an almost unheard-of feat."
Oceanside resident Shawn Goldsmith earned his final badge — for bugling — in time for his 18th birthday in November. He far surpassed the 21 badges required to achieve the elite rank of Eagle Scout.

He says he took about five years to earn his first 62 badges and then nearly doubled that number in a matter of months. He did it with the encouragement of his grandmother, who died shortly before he reached his goal.

The Binghamton University freshman was awarded his final badges on Dec. 19. He says he hopes to become a businessman and politician.

N.Y. Boy Scout earns all 121 merit badges - USATODAY.com

 

[random3434]

Just kidding!


That is great. My 16 year old nephew is going for Eagle Scout!

 

[editec]

I do NOT mean to insult anybody here, nor do I wish to insult the BSA, but am I the only person here who has noticed a high correlation between teens who stay in the BSA into their mid and later teens who also end up being homosexuals?

I know of my chums who were boyscouts every one (ever one!) who stayed on to become an eagle scout was gay.

Nice guys, nothing wrong with that, but what's up with that?

Is it the uniforms or the commoraderary or the badges or what?

 

[del]

I do NOT mean to insult anybody here, nor do I wish to insult the BSA, but am I the only person here who has noticed a high correlation between teens who stay in the BSA into their mid and later teens who also end up being homosexuals?

I know of my chums who were boyscouts every one (ever one!) who stayed on to become an eagle scout was gay.

Nice guys, nothing wrong with that, but what's up with that?

Is it the uniforms or the commoraderary or the badges or what?

i'd say yes, you are.

not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[jillian]

i'd say yes, you are.

not that there's anything wrong with that.

hmmmmmmmm.... my husband might take issue with that one. he was an eagle as were two of our (very hetero) friends and the father of the kid in the story.



And I wouldn't let my own son go to scouts because I have issues with excluding gay kids, but the kid in the story happens to be awesome.

 

[jillian]

Just kidding!


That is great. My 16 year old nephew is going for Eagle Scout!

Good luck to your nephew!

 

[editec]

hmmmmmmmm.... my husband might take issue with that one. he was an eagle as were two of our (very hetero) friends and the father of the kid in the story.



And I wouldn't let my own son go to scouts because I have issues with excluding gay kids, but the kid in the story happens to be awesome.

Okay, it might just be one of those statistical quirks that sometimes happens.

In my personal case I suppose that these four (then in the closet) young men simply found one place where they could express their masculinity (they're all pretty butch gays) in the company of other like minded gay men, while not appearing to be gay.

That actually does make a kind of sense given the time period these guys were eagle scouts.

That's why I was asking for confirmation of my experience from others.

My point obviously wasn't that being an Eagle Scout makes one gay, rather that being a particular type of gay makes Eagle Scouting look like an attractive lifestyle. (ESPECIALLY when being exposed as gay (like in the 60s's) was basically a quick trip to becoming socially ostracized.

 

[jillian]

Okay, it might just be one of those statistical quirks that sometimes happens.

In my personal case I suppose that these four (then in the closet) young men simply found one place where they could express their masculinity (they're all pretty butch gays) in the company of other like minded gay men, while not appearing to be gay.

That actually does make a kind of sense given the time period these guys were eagle scouts.

That's why I was asking for confirmation of my experience from others.

My point obviously wasn't that being an Eagle Scout makes one gay, rather that being a particular type of gay makes Eagle Scouting look like an attractive lifestyle. (ESPECIALLY when being exposed as gay (like in the 60s's) was basically a quick trip to becoming socially ostracized.

oh..ok, fair enough. maybe the people you know liked the environment where they can stay closeted, too.

 

[garyd]

You live in a peculiar community Edit my lad. I was senior patrol leader for a year, never meta scout who was gay but then that was when I was in high school forty years ago...

 

[del]

hmmmmmmmm.... my husband might take issue with that one. he was an eagle as were two of our (very hetero) friends and the father of the kid in the story.



And I wouldn't let my own son go to scouts because I have issues with excluding gay kids, but the kid in the story happens to be awesome.

my son's girl friend is going to be really surprised when he tells her. he's an eagle. most local units don't really pay attention to the stricture against gays, BTW. at least that's been my experience over the past 20 yrs.

sexuality isn't really part of the program-gay or straight.

 

[garyd]

Good point Del.

 

[del]

Good point Del.

i must say the knot tying skills come in handy later in life, though.

 

[garyd]

Did for me I did a lot of camping out and boating later in life before I got married and after I left the scouts.

 

[YWN666]

And I wouldn't let my own son go to scouts because I have issues with excluding gay kids, but the kid in the story happens to be awesome.

I feel the same way about the BSA. The Sup Ct case exposed the bigotry of the BSA administration.

 

[doeton]

i'd say yes, you are.

not that there's anything wrong with that.

let's see little boys...uniforms...only for boys...

how could anyone miss the correlation>?

 

[editec]

You live in a peculiar community Edit my lad. I was senior patrol leader for a year, never meta scout who was gay but then that was when I was in high school forty years ago...

Possibly, Gary.

OTOH, what do you suppose would have happened to those boys if they'd told their senior patrol leaders (in the early 1960s) that they were gay? (incidently, I am not at all certain these young men really understood that they were gay at the time...that self-revelation might have come much later)

For that matter, what would YOU do if your eagle scouts came out?

Would they still be invited to be team leaders to the tenderfoots on those extended camping trips, or would they be unwelcome?

 

[YWN666]

my son's girl friend is going to be really surprised when he tells her. he's an eagle. most local units don't really pay attention to the stricture against gays, BTW. at least that's been my experience over the past 20 yrs.

I know that some local troops are bending over backwards to accomodate everyone and undo the damage done by the BSA administration.

sexuality isn't really part of the program-gay or straight.

Exactly. The boy who was ousted, James Dale, was a scout for 8 years before the BSA found out he was gay and they had to be told so their argument that his presence will negatively influence the other boys holds no water. He got high praise from his superiors during those 8 years and they didn't know to shun him until they found out he is gay.
A short time after the Sup Ct decision was issued, a high ranking member of the BSA administration decided to come out of the closet and the BSA had no choice but to fire him or look like hypocrites. That again prompted the question: if this guy was gay during all those years in the BSA and no one knew it, then how could his homosexuality have been a bad influence?

 

[garyd]

I don't know, Edit. Hell I exited the scouts before I exited highschool. And back then sex of any kind was pretty much taboo in the scouts. We had one kid kicked out of the troop for sharing a picture of a playboy center fold with some other people in the troop. And know it wasn't me I had better sense. I knew the game and the rules by which it was played. By the way sex wasn't the be all and end all as it often seems to be today and frankly I think it was a better time for it.

Promiscuity is genrally about using others for your own ends and frankly I'm not at all sure that is a good thing.

 

[strollingbones]

great achievement ...lots of hard work...


you people cant focus passed post 3

 

[Diuretic]

Good point. As a former quite under-achieving Boy Scout I can say that this young fellow is brilliant, well done. And while I don't know what an Eagle Scout is I assume it's pretty damn good so well done to anyone who achieves it.