Posted by:
vecchia scout (sort of anon)
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Date: February 12, 2017 12:07PM
I think the problem here is structural: how the BSA and GG are organized, what are their programs, if they still have any relation to the original structure thought by BP. I have the impression that they are very separate and different from each other.
Some have pointed out that coed Scouting has been succesfully practiced in several countries for many years. I agree and add to this my Italian experience.
Scouting has been coed in Italy since 1974 in the Catholic association AGESCI and since 1976 in the CNGEI (Corpo Nazionale Giovani Esploratori ed Esploratrici Italiani), the non-denominational association. Before then, the boys' and girls' associations were already very close to each other and similar in many things - names, grades, programs - cooperating occasionally in different activities.
Cub-Scout packs have been mixed since even earlier. Scout patrols are still homogeneous, all boys or all girls, but the troops are mixed. Mixed is also the group of the 15-19 year-olds (in Italy they are called Rover.)
I joined the scouts (CNGEI) at 12, right in time for summer camp in a still all female troop. The boys were camping a few yards from us. Each troop had its own activities, but basically they were of the same kind, and it was OK. None of the girls complained of the long hikes, the tiring assignments and missions to accomplish, or the crappy toilets. That was Scouting and we did scouting.
A year later the two troops were joined together and we were all happy. I had two more years, with two more summer camps, with the coed troop as a girl-scout and a few years later I was in the leadership of the same troop for four years. I remember eveything working fine, there was never a problem with the girls doing outdoor stuff like the boys, or with the boys doing activities with the girls, we never had problems with hormonal teenagers, at least nothing more than holding hands while around the fire in the evening.
I couldn't think and cannot think of being in the scouts only among girls, it would be very boring. The best memories and the best friends I have are from my scout years. Many friends have found their spouse within the scouts, which certainly is far better than within mormonism.
So, all in all, I am for coed scouting. But, instead of girls wanting to join the BSA, a reorganization of both associations, creating a new coed one would probably be the better solution. Maybe it is too difficult, because of the enormous number of scouts in the US and possibly other aspects that I don't know, or it would just sound like anathema in the ranks of the BSA...