Netflix's Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America

[Ali Gator]

I encourage everyone here to watch "Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America" which was just released the other day on Netflix. At times it's very disturbing, yet it's a show that should be seen by everyone (I was never a scout, but I have a few close friends who were at different times). 

It details the decades of sex abuse against these young boys which was covered up by the BSA, and the trauma these guys - now in their 30s, 40s, 50s + are dealing with today. At one point, the spokesperson for  the survivors claims there are more sex abuse claims in the BSA (82,000+)  than there have been in the Catholic Church of America, or the Southern Baptist Youth Programs. More attention has been placed on the Catholic Church, because the Boy Scouts did a much better job of covering up the crimes and moving scout leaders to different locations quickly, as questions were raised by families. Unlike the Catholic Church, the BSA rarely kept paper trails on their decisions to move scout leaders. (In other words, there are probably thousands more sexual abuse crimes over the decades, yet harder to investigate because of the tactics of the BSA).  In April, 2023 the BSA filed for bankruptcy, so it wouldn't have to pay the victims.

 

10 Most Shocking Boy Scouts Reveals From Netflix's Scout's Honor Documentary

SCREENRANT.COM

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The Boy Scouts documentary had shocking moments.

 

[+ Charlie]

I had an older second cousin Fred, a school teacher in his early 30s, who was very active as a scout master. He suddenly resigned from the scouts in the mid-1950s, and shortly afterwards married a woman teacher friend. Everyone seemed surprised not only at the marriage but also at his split from the BSA. I was surprised at the marriage, because I had suspected that he was gay. Then I overheard my parents talking about a rumor in his family that he had been accused of having some kind of intimate relationship with a teenage scout during one of the national jamborees, which led to his resignation. His marriage lasted forty years and was apparently happy, but it never appeared to be a love match, and they never had children. Late in my life, I became quite friendly with his widow and one of her friends, also a widow, and putting together subtle suggestions, I got the impression that the friend's late husband and my cousin had some sort of special bond.

My cousin Fred was known in the community as a World War II hero--he was part of the landing on the beach on D-Day and fought in France--and he eventually became principal of a local high school. Also, one of my mother's brothers had a career as an executive in the BSA. But I never showed any interest in scouting as a child, and my parents never encouraged me to join the scouts. Looking back, I wonder why.

[MikeBiDude]

I'm an Eagle Scout and I won't and never would defend the abuse, of course. I will say I was never approached or in any way seduced by an adult leader. That said many of my formative sexual experiences did happen in the scouts with friends my own age.

[jeezifonly]

I was a scout a very long time ago…the 60’s. (Nineteen sixties…)

Over the 3-4 years I was part of it there were no signs of it In my troop. But what would I know? I was clearly one of the “creative boys” and might have been a target, and had there been rumors (the meetings were at the church we attended, most adults members of it) I would have been yanked out by the parents.

Gonna check this doc out.