In late January, the Boy Scouts of America announced it will begin accepting members based on their gender identity, opening the door for transgender youth to join.

I have no doubt that a great deal of thought went into the decision.  In a nutshell, the Scouting powers-that-be felt it was financially prudent.  The organization spent years and untold millions to defend its position on gay Scouters.  They likely feel they’re money ahead to simply fold like a cheap card table.  And that’s what they’ve done.

Some may feel this is only a slight additional wound to Scouting’s pride.  I think it spells the end of Scouting as we know it.

Set any arguments and pre-conceived transgender biases aside, for a moment.  Scouting in the United States is currently an organization for physically male youth.  Allowing a physically female youth as a member is a short hop away from opening the gate to any female youth–and believe me, that’s the next logical step.  If physically female members are accepted into that adolescent and hormonally-charged mix, well, it’s going to change things considerably.  I’ll let you imagine the consequences, because I really don’t want to think about them.  The organization will have to fundamentally change.

I’ve been involved in Scouting in one way or another for well over fifty years. There are many in our society today who scoff at the concept of “male bonding.”  I don’t suppose I blame them.  I don’t think males are allowed to bond in today’s society.  Females, on the other hand, are within their rights to march on Washington wearing vagina hats. I’m so happy that the world has finally come to its senses.  That was sarcasm.

In the years I’ve known it, Scouting has, among other things, allowed the male youth the opportunity to discover his gender identity in a tremendously healthy way.  Put simply, it’s given him the opportunity to spend time in a male-oriented environment.  It was just “the guys,” young and old, doing the things that liberals, female rights activists and others regard as “silly, man stuff.”  I loved it.

This is no socio-political claptrap or buzzword baloney;  you simply can’t have a male-oriented environment if you inject females into it.  If you add females, the male-only label comes off and it becomes…something else.  Scouting will now be that something else, for better or worse.  Maybe it will become financially successful.  Maybe it will be a wonderful organization.  The organization and environment I knew as a boy and know today as a man will no longer exist.  It will be gone.

No doubt the decision was carefully considered. Scouting is hurting for membership right now.  They know full well that eventually including females may dramatically increase their membership and hence their money.  If they are correct, they won’t hurt for members; it’s a calculated gamble and they have decided the risks are low enough to roll the dice.  They have considered all this—and they have likely considered me, and the people who feel the way I do.  They have considered us and made a decision.  They cared less about me than they cared about their finances.

I’m not against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, x-genders or food blenders.  I never have been.  But I believe in an organization’s right to say who and what it is.

I suppose it was a business decision, but it hurts to realize that an organization I loved cares more about it’s money than it does about me.  Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for me.