For those who are interested, here are the original pictures from the May 1962 copy of Boys’ Life:

For me, the latest news is still an uneasy thought to accept.  Knowing now what I didn’t know then, that there were gay boys in my school, one who knew he was gay at 12…he used to tickle me and giggle because tickling caused me to get an erection.  He never touched my erection but he did admit getting a thrill tickling me, which I avoided getting tickled by him even more after his admission.

He was in Boy Scouts with me.  We earned more than one merit badge together, both of us interested in nature, studying birds and wildlife habitats, taking notes and sharing with other Boy Scouts.

I admit I was attracted to his intellect but I was not sexually attracted to him.

He went on to earn academic honours at CalTech as well as achieved business accolades.

I sit here and look at my Boy Scout achievements, including the milestone of Eagle Scout:

I guess the Boy Scouts of America have adjusted to a changing United States of America.

What will the troop leaders face now that openly-gay Scouts are officially accepted?

Will they have to worry not only about boys getting knife cuts while whittling and third-degree burns from roasting marshmallows but also listen carefully at night to make sure a curious gay boy will not make a pass at a fellow tentmate?

Will a tickler of the 1970s attempt a kiss, instead, in the 2010s?

My wife and I have briefly discussed this issue — when we did, my scalp felt on fire, which told me this is important for me to consider further.

How do I separate the code of honour I upheld as a Boy Scout — reconciling that the fact that homosexuality is a physical/mental wiring issue rather than a[n] [im]moral act against the fact that boys become sexually active in their early teens, some more active than others — from the genetic code that children are born with?

It is not a simple matter that I can easily and simply dismiss.

Are all openly-gay boys effeminate?

If so, will they and their parents push for sewing/fashion and home decorating Boy Scout merit badges?

Regardless of gender preference/attraction, Boy Scouts is about learning new skills, including wilderness survival but also skills in the civilised world, such as computers and citizenship.

I have always been willing to hold discordant views in my thoughts and these definitely clash: I accept gays and lesbians as friends even though a part of me sees anything but a heterosexual relationship as unnatural, a sign that nature has a way of putting the brakes on overpopulation.

However, building rockets and exploring the cosmos is an unnatural act of sorts in my thoughts yet I want our species to create networks of beings/technology that branch out from the solar system and into the neighbouring sections of our galaxy.

Unnatural is a word to describe a condition of one or more sets of states of energy in flux.

I will think more about this and hope to record here my thoughts on the matter.

Until next time, my wife and I will continue to share our lives together, including a tour of Air Force One a couple of years ago.

Au revoir!