Dear Editor:
I read Mr. Horstmann's last letter and I looked up the site he had attached. Yes the British version of the Girl Scouts did take the world God out of their oath, but it wasn't because of gays, it was because they wanted to increase their membership and were looking to include secular women and girls who would feel uncomfortable saying God in the oath.
To see who is actually taking God out of our Boy Scouts of America all we have to do is read the newspaper articles. Guess what? it isn't the gays here either; it is people like Mr. Horstmann. Churches and religious organizations are pulling their support right and left and I am completely surprised by this.
For years we have been told that being gay is a choice that it is our young being led astray by the evil perverts of our society. If that is the case then I would have expected every religious organization out there to jump at the opportunity to get their hands on young impressionable youths who mistakenly see themselves as gay and show them the way. To do what they could to pray the gay away and change these kids, to lead them to the path of righteousness.
They are not however and one has to ask why? Well, there are two possible answers that I could come up with. One is that their faith is so weak that they cannot even save themselves much less save a gay child or they know in their heart of hearts that gays are born that way and cannot be changed, and by being around gay kids and parents they would have to finally accept that and the fact that gay people aren't monsters.
By the way I appreciate the irony of the timing of Horstmann's letter. It falls one day after the 40-year anniversary of the Upstairs Lounge massacre that killed 65 gay men and women. A person knocked on the door of a bar then covered the stairs to the bar with lighter fluid and burned them all to death.