John Stemberger said Wednesday that
openly gay youth will not be tolerated in Trail Life USA because gay
people are “intolerant.”
After unsuccessfully lobbying the Boy
Scouts of America (BSA) not to allow openly gay scouts in its youth
program, John Stemberger founded Trail Life USA as an alternative to
the BSA.
During a Crosstalk appearance,
Stemberger, who also heads the Florida Family Policy Council, a group
opposed to gay rights, told host Jim Schneider that openly “loud
and proud” gay youth “will not be tolerated in Trail Life USA”
because gay people are “intolerant.”
“What we do not welcome is a boy
that is willing to dig in and say, 'Oh, I'm gay, and God created me
this way. And I'm going to promote it and be loud and proud,'”
Stemberger
said. “That's what's inappropriate in any child program, any
youth program, and will not be tolerated in Trail Life USA.”
“So we view a same sex attraction as
being very different that this new socio-political construct of gay,
which is a political movement, is an in-your-face, intolerant
attitude agenda. That's a very different thing than just a person
struggling with same-sex attraction, or even a person who has a
same-sex attraction and gives in to it.”