The article is about homosexuals as scoutmasters. No one is advocating allowing confirmed sex offenders to be scoutmasters. So where in the article are they kowtowing to pedophiles, as you suggest?  It's obvious to me you've just gone ahead and equated the two.

"He was, and is yet, most likely, the wearisomest, self-righteous
pharisee that ever ransacked a Bible to rake the promises to himself
and fling the curses on his neighbors." -Emily Bronte

Ruth's Husband,

Would you allow your daughter to have a heterosexual male coach? 

How about a heterosexual male teacher?

Leon, and to a lesser extent, you, are focusing on both minutia and on your perceived idea of the typical individual who doesn't want open homosexuals in scouting.   The knee-jerk charges of "homophobia"  and "hate" are made by ignorant fools.

First, just to clarify, the BSA policy isn't directed only at gay Scout Leaders, but all homosexuals...adults and scouts.

In my first two posts on this thread, I addressed the practicality of the issue.  If BSA were to allow gay leaders and scouts, then most parents would refuse to allow their sons to go camping.  That would destroy scouting, since the vast majority of all youths who join Scouting do so for the camping. 

Additionally, the Mormons and the Baptists have already said they would leave scouting if BSA changed their policy....taking at least half of all scouts with them.

Regarding the issue of who might molest scouts, I think it's been clouded by referring to all abusers as pedophiles.  Actually, when you think of young men, aged 14-18, you're no longer talking about children and you're no longer talking about an age that typical peds are interested in.   Many of these young men are large and strapping.   They certainly cannot be classified as "children."  So, when it comes to abuse, it means you're talking about homosexuals, whether older or within the same age group.

Further complicating the issue, NAMBLA (defended and therefore sponsored by the ACLU, which is the prime driver in the attempt to destroy Scouting) adamantly considers itself to be a homosexual organization.   Other gay organizations have admitted that the only reason they won't recognize NAMBLA as one of their own is that they would lose politically.

So, what do you have?   That the department of child abuse at the FBI and numerous psychologists, among others, have flatly stated that BSA is a magnet for molesters.   That introducing open homosexuality into an organization where adults and boys can be alone for up to two weeks would be a disaster on all fronts.

What are they doing about the "closet" gays you mentioned?  As I told leon, the BSA refuses to release the figures, but it did come out in a trial that they've been dismissing molesters at the rate of one every other day.  Additionally, they have a Youth Protection program that was considered to be an excellent model for other youth groups.   I suspect that part of the reason for being so proactive is that they have been successfully sued by families of the molested....and if they allow open homosexuality, the risk and the settlement amounts will go way, way up.

Obviously, they won't be able to catch all molesters before they act, but to allow avowed homosexuals as scouts and leaders is impractical and impossible if Scouting is to exist at all.

Finally, BSA doesn't go looking for gays in scouting, whether adults or youths. There is no "are you gay" question.  In fact, there are many gay leaders, scouts, and even Eagle Scouts.  I know some.  Most just don't make an issue of it.  And, in my 27 years in Scouting, the subject has rarely even come up.   Since sexuality, hetero or homo, isn't a part of Scouting, I'm not surprised.

Yes they are in addition to the teachers that have sex with their students or the parents that have sex with their kids