Belong 2 linking up with Scouting Ireland. I feel this is extremely inappropriate

[Nonpoliticalmum]

Scouting Ireland is marching with Belong 2 in Dublin Pride. Given the historical background & legal cases within Scouting Ireland I do not feel comfortable with this. Surely scouting is supposed to be non political.
Parents pay huge membership fees, surely they should be consulted.
Also they are launching a "Rainbow Award" with Belong 2 according to their fb page which has comments turned off..

When the right to sane sex marriage was finally allowed the original stone wall directive was fulfilled. It all got a bit normal and donations dried up - so they tried to reinvent the wheel but tagged many acronyms to the LGB to continue the cash flow.

Exactly, there's not much to be done really about being gay. Some space to work out their feelings without shame attached. The identity politics end of it has ramped up with the T because it requires the world around them to participate, validate, drop their boundaries and pretend. Exhausting really

I'm just picturing some poor child who might be wondering if they are same sex attracted. Can you just imagine the cringe factor when the adults get all excited and talking about parades and flags and identities!! They are going to get the ick so bad it'll keep them in a closet for decades!! 😀

We had a pride event last week outside my work. Myself and a colleague were eating our lunch at a restaurant sitting outside as it was sunny.

There was a small stage set up and a man in clothes too small, make up and rainbow hair was screeching down a microphone. He had the campest voice ever.

Our eye balls were rolling to the back of heads. This was not representative of the gay people I know.

What IS sad. Is if they wanted real LGB representation they would be using LGB professionals, doctors nurses, lawyers, scientists but no … it’s all glitter hair spray and purple eye shadow

At the end of the day ideologies should be kept out of childrens activities & certain groups which have their own agendas & beliefs have no place either.

These kind of groups never want to support the elderly or team up with groups that support the elderly. It's a real puzzler, isn't it?

Straight for the kids & bypassing the parents en route! The parents who question their motives are then called biggots & transphobic..

Yes, and it's all so kind and caring isn't it? Identifying those nasty 'non-supportive parents' and creating a little drama triangle with the child

What 'non-supportive' means of course in this context is parents that are not supportive of this harmful cult

I wonder when a young person has gained some maturity, perhaps is dealing with the harsh social, psychological, and medical effects of setting an identity into stone, who would be there for them? Who would they turn to?

I wonder if the activists will be as interested in them then? I suspect they will be left to the bigoted, transphobic parents...

Exactly the "non supportive" parents will be the ones picking up the pieces.
I really hope word spreads quickly within the scouting community & that their is a monumental pushback by parents who have any reservations whatsoever about the sharp change of direction scouting Ireland has taken..

Yes, for sure. If parents don't push back, it will be mindlessly put in place

I wonder what the average volunteer thinks about it though? The evidence is stacking up against social transition of young people

If I was a volunteer it wouldn't be too impressed at being asked to participate in a contentious psycho-social experiment on likely vulnerable young people at the behest of activists!! That would be a little beyond the scope of what I'd signed up for I think!! Surely there will be pushback from there too?

The vast majority of leaders are parents with kids in the groups who are also unpaid volunteers giving up a huge amount of their personal time to give children amazing experiences & life skills. This is a huge responsibility to place upon them & they may well lose fantastic leaders in the process.

Well I hope they push back against this. The problem is that it can be difficult for word to spread on this subject as any discussion is shut down and people that raise concerns are labelled bigots.

I agree, the 'bigot' label is wheeled out regularly, which is why I think it's so important to identify the T as the problem not the LGB.

Not the same thing, not the same issues, not the same erasure of women as a social class, not the same basis in scientific fact, not the same reliance on pharma and the cosmetics industries, not the same history, not the same potential outcomes for children.

Being transgender is not a sexual orientation, in Belong To's own words, yet their activities seem to centre around trans not gay, and certainly not lesbian. So what use are they to a scout who thinks they maybe lesbian or gay, but not trans?

That's fair criticism, not bigotry.

Exactly. Another difference is that LGB doesn't need the participation of everyone in society to play along with them with accompanying threats if everyone doesn't pretend hard enough that a lie is the truth..

It has been a massive advantage for T to latch itself onto LGB but I only see negative effects for a young person questioning their sexuality.

Exactly, lgb is normalised, accepted & integrated into society. Even this year pride was a massive non event, the elections & fathers day recieved much more marketing. My local town has no flags or rainbow graphics displayed anywhere. Obviously groups such as Belong To need the fanfare to continue which is why they are targeting children's groups such as scouts.

Belong to specifically exist to support LGBTQ young people - so they target young people’s groups.

totally agree that it is integrated into society. That’s precisely why Pride has got bigger every year here - the corporate sponsorship; More events in more places. It’s particularly warming to see a pride parade in Longford, that voted no in the marriage referendum.

Pride month is all of June. So many parades haven’t happened yet.

Well my town has no graphics or flags up. Bunting, flags, posters used be hung in previous years but it's very muted in fact non existent this year. My couin who recently became a dad with his partner was delighted to see father's day so prominently marketed this year. Double celebration for him & his lovely partner who despise pride. Father's day used get lost in a sea of rainbow!

I think the point being made here is that the way belongto conflates LGB identities with TQ identities is damaging to young LGB so the direct opposite of supportive whether that is intentional or not

I'm not sure the size of a parade or the amount of corporate sponsorship attracted makes that fact any easier to stomach...

Exactly @Demented101 & the corporate sector seemed to have jumped off the pride bandwagon.. The only store I saw any pride graphics was a window sticker on Schue (sp) Pennies also had a small rack of pride t-shirts that's it.

I think the boardrooms of these corporations are not giving a lot of thought as to what is actually supportive of LGB young people anyway. Item 1 on the agenda: what cheap virtue signalling shite can we attach ourselves to this year?

Yes! Mother & Father's day got great marketing this year. Actually now that you mention it there's lots of Taylor Swift paraphernalia in the shops at the moment to coincide with the June /July concerts