Category: Boy Scouts

My family has a rich Scouting background. I tell people, “We have so many Eagle Scouts, even my gay brother is an Eagle Scout.” It’s true.

I don’t like Boy Scouts of America’s (BSA’s) homosexuality policy, which bars homosexual adult leaders. I’d like a change: our understanding of homosexuality has improved, and BSA’s policy needs to improve, too. But at the same time, I don’t think the public debate appreciates the risk of change.

Every Scout unit is owned by a chartered organization. A charter is a license to use Boy Scouts’s program.

Most chartered organizations have negative views of homosexuality:

1. 56% of Scouts are in units chartered by religious institutions with officially negative views of homosexuality, like the United Methodist Church, Latter Day Saints (Mormon) Church, and the Catholic Church.
2. 3% of Scouts are in units chartered by religious institutions that accept homosexuality, like the United Church of Christ.
3. The remaining 41% are in units chartered by civic or educational organizations, and their stances can vary. For example, a University Park, Texas unit, chartered by a parents’ club, barred a homosexual parent from leadership based on objections of other parents. (My son’s pack is chartered by a PTA.)

Even when accounting for variances within institutions–for example, some United Methodist congregations are accepting of homosexuality, some United Church of Christ congregations don’t accept it–it’s still likely that most chartered organizations have negative views of homosexuality.

The BSA is in a difficult spot: its ultimate power, its livelihood, rests in chartering organizations–they run the Scouting units, they provide all the youth, and they have the final voting authority in BSA.

Can BSA survive if it angers most its chartering organizations?

I wish BSA could be neutral, letting chartered organizations do their own homosexuality policies, like what was recently proposed. But in seeking change, I don’t want to recklessly harm or destroy the centerpiece of the American Scouting movement.

I’m sure some of you will say this is still perpetuating discrimination. That’s just not true. It has taken decades, sometimes centuries, for society to correct civil rights problems. It’s not reasonable to expect the BSA to make instant-presto changes, especially given that it must be sensitive to the policies of its chartered organizations.

The ACLU’s scorched earth war on Boy Scouts isn’t the right solution. We can do this better, and we can do it right, with a pragmatic, dialogue-rich approach. In the end, destroying the organization is not the right way to fix its policies.

Circle 10 Council, the Boy Scout council for the Dallas, TX area, is realigning its districts. The council thinks it hasn’t been done for at least 30 years. It’s time!

As a former District Commissioner for the White Rock District, I think this makes a ton of sense. The districts are too different in resources, members, and geography, and they sometimes pointlessly separate common communities. The proposal helps a lot.

So far Circle 10 has not released maps. I needed to figure out some mapmaking tools for my doctoral work anyway, so I thought I would make the maps myself. So I present to you Circle 10 Council’s new districts!

IMPORTANT: I am doing this on my own. This was not requested by the council. Also, the guidance I found wasn’t always fully precise, so I had to interpret in some areas.

Click on each image for a larger version.

Start with Dallas County:

Interesting changes:

• White Rock and White Buffalo districts merged. (See detail below.)
• North Trail divided into 3 parts:
  1. Fair Park area (formerly part of Comanche), downtown, and West View District are combined with the Park Cities part of North Trail. (See detail below.)
  2. Richardson ISD portion.
  3. Dallas ISD north of Northwest Highway, including Dallas ISD portions that were part of North District.
• North becomes only Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD.
• Gray Owl gets split up. (See detail below.)
• Unchanged:
  • Wisdom Trail
  • Mountain Lake
  • Western Star
  • Mustang

Here’s the merged White Rock/White Buffalo districts:

I always thought White Buffalo and White Rock should be combined. Both districts have more in common than other adjacent areas. Also, White Buffalo’s few traditional units didn’t make sense in a sea of program units.

Here’s Gray Owl:

It’s split into two parts:

1. Garland ISD
2. Rockwall County and Wylie and Communities ISDs. I think it also includes Royse City ISD, but Circle 10’s guidance wasn’t clear.

Here’s Collin County:

(Ignore the discontinuities on top left. I had GIS problems.) Notable changes:

• Great Plains (Plano ISD) divided into 2 districts along Parker Road.
• Southern Sky gets split. Southern Sky 1 is Allen ISD and Lovejoy ISD. Southern Sky 2 is Frisco, Celina, and Prosper ISDs.
• That’s Gray Owl 2 on the bottom right.
• I think Lone Star is the remainder of Collin County?

Here’s the old Texoma Valley Council, still its own district:

It includes Grayson County, TX and Bryan County, OK. I recently saw a Circle 10 billboard on southbound US 75  just north of the Red River.

Now let’s go southeast to Tawakoni:

This is Hunt and Rains Counties. Not sure this is even changed.

Cherokee gets split up. Part 1 has Kaufman and Van Zandt Counties:

I was in Pack 376 in Van, TX for a few years.

Here’s Cherokee Part 2 and Bluebonnet:

Bluebonnet is Ellis County, and Cherokee Part 2 is Navarro and Henderson Counties.

Let’s go back into Dallas and take a closer look at the southern part of North Trail:

Park Cities area, West View District, and Fair Park area are combined. I like that Scouts from the poorest parts of town will be able to share resources with the wealthiest part of the council.

I am glad Circle 10 is doing this. I hope everything goes smoothly and that each district’s volunteer leaders take this with a positive attitude. It’s for the better of Scouting in the east half of DFW.