Ellen DeGeneres Criticises Boy Scouts Of America

Comedian and chat-show presenter Ellen DeGeneres has criticised the Boy Scouts of America for delaying its decision on lifting its ban on gay members and leaders.

The organisation was expected to vote this week on lifting the controversial ban on openly gay members or leaders. However, the national executive of the Boy Scouts Of America have decided to delay their vote on the issue until the Summer in order to consider their options more fully.

The controversial ban has resulted in a number of big corporate companies withdrawing donations in protest. But the prospect of the ban being lifted has prompted a backlash from Christian and Conservative elements in America.

Speaking on her chat-show Ellen DeGeneres was critical of the Boy Scouts Of America ban on gay members. DeGeneres said;

“If the Boy Scouts start treating gays equally, they’re going to become the first group to do it — after the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines, the Coast Guard, all of the United Kingdom and Cher,….They won’t let their members be gay, or openly gay, anyway, but they’re letting them wear neckerchiefs and green short shorts!”

The possibility of the ban being lifted has prompted some Churches, who donate to the organisation, threaten to withdraw their funding and lobby others to follow suit. The backlash from Christian/Conservative quarters has even prompted some more extreme commentators to claim Satan is behind the attempt to allow gay members and leaders into the Scouts! One columnist in America even compared the efforts to allow gay members to be part of the Scouts to the Nazi invasion of Norway in 1940!

While Christian commentators continue to prove just how “un-Christian” they really are with their homophobic, outrageous and bigoted outbursts on the issue a new poll by the Quinnipiac University found that 55% supported the ban being lifted with only 33% feeling the ban should remain.

While President Obama supports the ban being lifted former Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry – governor of the state of Texas – believes the ban should remain. Perry recorded a video message, in December 2011, in which he claimed there was “something wrong” with America when “gays can serve openly” in the military but “children cannot celebrate” Christmas at School. The video was widely criticised and mocked and Perry dropped out of the running to be the Republican’s presidential candidate in January 2012.