“There is a merit badge for just about everything in Boy Scouts of America, one of the largest private youth organizations in the U.S. — a badge for heritage, culture, family life, first aid and so on. There isn’t yet a badge for taking a stand against anti-gay or anti-lesbian bias and bigotry …,” begins today’s editorial, “Boy Scouts should live up to creed.”
Well, now there is — at least virtually.
A key piece of the advocacy group’s social media campaign is a virtual “merit badge” built for sharing. Posting it on your wall, tweeting or tumbling it (various forms of sharing) shows your followers you support “inclusive scouting.”
GLAAD, formally the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is waging the social media campaign on nearly all digital fronts to convince the Boy Scouts of America to allow gay Scouts and LGBT leaders. On Monday, the BSA announced it’s considering doing just so — at least letting each troop decide; its national board may discuss the ban against openly gay members at its February meeting.
Here’s what the badge looks like on Facebook:
On Pinterest, GLAAD has a board supporting Ohio mom Jennifer Tyrrell’s petitions to end the Boy Scouts’ ban on gay leaders and scouts.
What the campaign looks like on Twitter:
Tell the boyscouts to end the ban on gay scouts and leaders #BoyScouts glaad.org/tellbsa instagr.am/p/VHGkcquc4M/
— GLAAD (@glaad) January 30, 2013
The campaign is also on Instagram and Tumblr.
More information on GLAAD’s website.