Walker: I Meant The Scouts Ban On Gay Leaders ‘Protected’ Kids From Politics

Governor Scott Walker (Republican of Wisconsin) Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National at National Harbor, Maryland, America - 26 Feb 2015 (Rex Features via AP Images)
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Presidential candidate and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said on Wednesday that when he described the Boy Scouts ban on gay leaders as having “protected children,” he meant that it had protected them from political debate.

On Tuesday, a day after entering the 2016 race, Walker, an Eagle Scout, was asked about the recent decision by the Boy Scouts of America to lift its longstanding ban on gay troop leaders.

Walker told the Independent Journal Review he supported the ban because it “protected children and advanced Scout values.”

The comments were met with outrage by LGBT rights groups, including the Human Rights Campaign. In a statement sent to TPM, the group called his comments “shameful and offensive.”

But during a Wednesday press conference in South Carolina, according to the New York Times, Walker said his comments had been misunderstood.

“The protection was not a physical protection,” he said, according to the Times. Instead, it was about “protecting them from being involved in the very thing you’re talking about right now, the political and media discussion about it, instead of just focusing on what Scouts is about, which is about camping and citizenship and things of that nature.”

Notable Replies

  1. I call bullshit.

    If that’s what he meant why didn’t he say it in the first place?

  2. “The protection was not a physical protection,” he said, according to the Times. Instead, it was about “protecting them from being involved in the very thing you’re talking about right now, the political and media discussion about it, instead of just focusing on what Scouts is about, which is about camping and citizenship and things of that nature.”

    That makes no fucking sense at all. You’re worried that gay scout leaders are gonna talk politics with the kids?

  3. Clearly, Walker just wants to protect kids from political debate by turning the Boy Scouts into a political debate.

    What’s not to understand???

  4. Avatar for jinnj jinnj says:

    logical extension -
    a racist whites only school is simply protecting the children from getting caught up in racial debates.
    Nobody with a brain buys your lame-o answer Scott!

  5. In his zeal to toe the ultra conservative right-wing line, Walker forgets that there are some states where voters recognize other issues besides hating those who are not just like you. It’ll be interesting to see how his extremist positions play in states like NH, where just hating gays doesn’t earn you many votes.

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