Obama Says Boy Scouts Should Be Open To Gays

In a live interview on CBS that aired right before the Super Bowl, President Obama made his opinion known about whether the Boy Scouts of America should suspend their longtime ban on participation by openly gay people:

In an interview with CBS, anchor Scott Pelley asked the president if he believed scouting should be open to gays."Yes," Obama said simply.Asked to elaborate, Obama - who last year gave his backing to the right of same sex couples to marry - said gays and lesbians should be able to participate in "every institution" that others can."My attitude is ... that gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does, in every institution and walk of life," he said."The Scouts are a great institution that are promoting young people and exposing them to, you know, opportunities and leadership that will serve people for the rest of their lives, and I think that nobody should be barred (from) that."

Even more important than his pronouncement on the Scouting controversy in my opinion is his reiteration of the principle that "gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does, in every institution and walk of life."

I would love to see some polling data on what percentage of Americans agree with that statement. The direct implication is that sexual orientation (and gender identity) should be included in federal non-discrimination statutes. I wonder how the heterosexual supremacists and homophobes feel about the resident of the United States staking out a position in direct opposition to theirs in the ongoing kulturkampf about LGBT equality in the United States?