John Stemberger, the Religious Right activist who founded Trail Life USA as an anti-gay alternative to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) said yesterday that gay people are “intolerant,” and that is why he will not “tolerate” them in Trail Life USA or any other youth group.
Stemberger, who also leads the Florida Family Policy Council, told Crosstalk host Jim Schneider that openly, “loud and proud,” gay youth “will not be tolerated in Trail Life USA” and should be barred from “any youth program.”
He also worried that minors increasingly identify as gay, “especially boys that have had abuse in their life, that don’t have a father, that are hearing all of these messages in the culture, ‘are you gay,’ ‘are you bi,’ ‘are you gender curious,’ ‘are you whatever,’ and they hear all that nonsense.” Stemberger added that “we view a same-sex attraction as being very different than this new, sociopolitical construct of ‘gay,’ which is a political movement that is an in-your-face, intolerant, attitude agenda.”
While Stemberger had no problems organizing a defection from the BSA, he said he is outraged by Disney’s move to pull its funding of the BSA because the organization still bars gay people from leadership roles.
He called Disney’s decision proof that gay rights advocates have a “vitriolic spirit” of “intolerance.”
“Disney’s bought into it, Disney is completely a pro-gay agenda,” he said. “ I don’t trust Disney anymore with my kids. The Disney Channel can’t be trusted. If it has ‘Disney’ on it and says it’s for kids you better watch what it is parents because they can no longer be trusted as a family source for entertainment.”
