This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Re "Mormon church endorses Scout plan: let gay boys join, keep out gay leaders" (Tribune, April 26):
The plan of the Boy Scouts of America to allow gay young men to play with straight young men but to forbid adult gay men from associating with them reminds me of nothing more than the plantation culture of the Old South, where black children of slaves played with white children, but when they grew up the whites had nothing to do socially with the blacks.
If creating a Jim Crow situation in Scouting is "a step in the right direction," as openly gay Mormon filmmaker Kendall Wilcox says, that is a sad description of what existed before.
This policy change is not a step forward; at best, it is a step sideways that maintains a stigma about being gay. In this case, separate is not only unequal, it is downright benighted.
Niel Snyder
Salt Lake City