Today, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) announced that, based on its recently completed research study, Reaching America’s Next Multicultural Generation, it has launched a Hispanic and Latino Task Force. The purpose of the task force is to determine how to better reach and serve the Hispanic and Latino communities, which are typically underserved by youth character-building programs.

The primary goal of the study was to gain a better understanding of the needs and desires of Hispanic and Latinos in relation to their participation in youth organizations, specifically the BSA. The research explored the positive perceptions and connections with Scouting, as well as some disconnects and concerns that Scouting will need to address to serve youth and parents in these communities.

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Georgia parents are protesting the discriminatory policies of the Boy Scouts of America in light of the organization’s decision to hold its annual meeting in Atlanta on May 30th and 31st and are urging the nearly century-old group to change its unethical policy of excluding gay Scouts and Scoutmasters from membership.

Dale Merkle of Atlanta, a former Boy Scout who was also a Cub Scout den leader, expressed dismay that the Boy Scouts of America have adopted a discriminatory policy that didn’t exist when he was raising his own children and was involved in Scouting.

“I don’t know which is worse, that the Boy Scouts of America discriminate the way they do, or that they think it’s okay to flaunt this discrimination in Atlanta, a city that for many people is synonymous with the civil rights movement,” said Merkle, a father of three children, two of whom are gay, and a member of the Atlanta chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). “I would hope that — at the very least — a discussion of this outdated policy would be on the agenda for this important meeting, but it appears that the current Board of the Boy Scouts of America organization simply doesn’t care about fairness.”

“In the name of ‘morals’, the Boy Scouts of America have adopted a bigoted policy that flies in the face of what a majority of Americans believe,” Merkle said. “This hurts every Scout by planting the seeds o intolerance, and there’s nothing moral about that.”

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Troop 149 from Windsor, Connecticut will be hosting a “Safety Break” for traveling motorists this Memorial Day Weekend.

The Safety Break starts at 4:30pm on Friday, May 25, and will run non-stop until 4:30pm on Monday, May 28th. The event which is being held at Trinity United Methodist Church, 180 Park Ave., at exit 36 off Interstate 91, was designed to get motorists to take a break and remember safety during this busy travel weekend.

The event will feature coffee and other snacks for motorists who stop and take a “Safety Break” with the Troop.