You likely recall the recent announcement from the Boy Scouts saying that they were no longer actually the Boy Scouts, but rather simply the Scouts. That’s because they are now accepting girls. Prior to that, they agreed to accept girls dressed as boys so long as they “identified” as that gender. Well, with the World Scout Jamboree coming up in a couple of months in West Virginia, things are getting even more interesting.

Since the American Boy Scouts are the hosts for this international gala, they’ve had to get ready to implement all of the rules of the global organization. And one of those is catching a lot of attention. Keeping in mind that little detail about girls joining their ranks which I linked above, it sheds a bit of a different light on the fact that the Scouts are going to be making sure that condoms are available for the jamboree. (Washington Times)

The Boy Scouts will reportedly provide condoms at the upcoming World Scout Jamboree.

The World Organization of Scouting Movement handbook requires the host organization to “ensure that condoms are readily and easily accessible for all participants and [International Service Team staff] at a number of locations on the site.”

The 2019 World Scout Jamboree will be held in West Virginia from July 21 to Aug. 1. The theme is “Unlock a New World.”

The World Jamboree is an official World Organization of the Scout Movement event. The Boy Scouts are co-hosting this year’s program with two other scouting organizations, Scouts Canada and the Scouts Association of Mexico.

So… if they’re going to be allowing a bunch of girls at the jamboree and they’re putting out free condom dispensers, it sort of gives that “Unlock a New World” theme a whole new spin, doesn’t it?

Look, I understand the immediate objections of the more traditional parents who entrusted their boys to the Scouts for so long, as well as the many churches who act as Scouting sponsors and allow the groups to use their basements and halls for troop meetings. Encouraging underage children to have sex, or even giving the impression that you’re encouraging it is at a minimum, just horrible optics. I get it.

At the same time, I honestly have a difficult time getting too upset over this. The ideals of scouting and the realities inside the troops were always in conflict to some degree. I remember my years in the Boy Scouts fondly, and one aspect of that was the annual summer trip for a week up to their large campground by a lake in the Adirondack Mountains. Conveniently enough there was a Girl Scout camp not far away, and you may rest assured that we were making occasional forays in that direction just like the plot of some National Lampoon movie. Of course, I failed spectacularly in my early efforts to convince any of the Girl Scouts what great company I would be so I wouldn’t have had any need for condoms. But as society has grown more permissive, open and sexualized in the internet era, I’m pretty sure there are boys out there today with batting averages above zero.

With that in mind, maybe having condoms available isn’t as horrible as some of us are imagining. It’s the job of the parents, the church and the community to impart values to growing boys, hopefully leading them to show some restraint. But if their hormones get the better of them, stopping any of the new female Boy Scouts from getting preggers or contracting a disease might not be the worst thing in the world.