I might be overstating the problem, but at camp I found that being gay was stigmatized. Like you'd have people acting homophobic to "prove" they weren't gay. And this isn't even camp, this goes back to elementary school to be honest. The first time I heard the word gay was in Grade 3 (when I moved to Toronto, eh?) and that's only because the community I used to live in was not as ... urban shall we say? It was directed at me in an offensive manner, and it didn't really change as I grew up (I went to school with a lot of minorities, especially Black people that tend to be extremely conservative about homosexuality, to put it nicely). I think "no homo" became a thing over the course of the last decade and I'm not sure if you've been immersed in how homophobia is expressed today - it might've been different 25 years ago. Like in changerooms? Oh jeez. I don't think any LGBTQ youth were bullied in my school, but that's possibly because some of them were quite popular so it may have been a generational thing and not evident of a trend.
It might have been different all those years ago, because until high school I hadn't even heard the word gay used in any other context other than "happy." And that was when in music we were to sing Christmas carols.
Of course they wouldn't display homophobia when they're co-workers or customers, because there's no social context. They're not going to win your approval by gay-bashing are they? And while I don't think anybody expresses malice, that's the very thing about homophobia - it's an expression of stigma versus an attack on homosexuality as you'd hear by some conservative radio hosts. Sure they're two different things, but even if you don't mean evil and still use the same language there's a bit of grey area, so I'll leave the culpability for you to decide.
I just haven't heard any homophobic language, from the teens, either direct or indirect. So I don't know. It has to greatly depend on where you've grown up and the community you live in. Burlington, where I work, has been known to be economically conservative, but socially liberal. Hamilton, where I live now (and wish I wasn't), is far more conservative, and it's here that I have to watch my back. We've had adults drive by our house and yell gay slurs at us as we sit on our porch. We shrug it off. We get far more people honking their horns at us in support when they see us and the pride flag that flies above our porch.
When I was growing up and in scouts, I had such a great group of friends. They were also people that I went to school with so we knew each other well. But even from those that I didn't know very well, I had no problems. Not at the meetings, and not at the camps. I'd say most of the fun I've ever had was at those camps. And not once did I hear anyone at any time say anything disparaging against gays. Like I said, until high school, the word to me pretty much just meant happy, because that is the only context in which the word was used.
Just coming out of my teens, I think I'm on pretty solid ground in saying that teenagers are not that mature. You've got quite a bit of years on me, so you're deserving of being extra cynical to those of your generation XD but I find a lot of my peers are starting to find their way and becoming more responsible socially/economically where they'd all just skip class and get in trouble back in high school.
That's saying it mildly, I'm old enough to be the father of most of the people on these forums. :)
When gauging the maturity of the people we deal with, while it's true the language of the teens this days is... shall we say... colourful, when I have conversations with them, or when facing a problem that needs to be solved, I've found teenagers to be about as level headed as any adult I've talked to. Teenagers are still children. Their minds still have not fully developed. Plus, on top of that, they have sudden surges of hormones filling their systems which can make their moods unpredictable. But I can deal with teenagers on the same level as I deal with adults. So maybe it's just the setting where you're interacting with some of these teens that gives you that impression of them. It's not their age that determines their maturity, it's how they were raised.
The Boy Scouts of America have always seemed to me to be a conservative organization, in both funding and values, so theoretically they would be among the last organizations to allow gay participants. The article has a pretty hesitant mood to it, so even if gay scouts are allowed, I don't know if they would have anti-discriminatory policies, anti-discrimination training, and the moral values to enforce what they're putting on paper. Even if you're allowed to officially join, it doesn't mean you'll be welcome.
If they are never made to feel welcome, it would counter all the good will they're trying to develop. I would say in the beginning, I think (if this policy is adopted) the BSA will keep a close eye on the chartered members to make sure they're not doing anything to alienate any boy scout.
