Trend Tracker by NetBase: Boys Scouts Salute to Equality

There has been a lot of activity in the equal rights movement as of late.  As of May 2013, twelve states—Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington—as well as the District of Columbia have legalized same sex marriage.  And in 2011 the military policy of “don’t ask don’t tell” (DADT) was overturned allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military.  And now, the Boy Scouts have officially approved gay members.  This decision sparked a lot of chatter across the social sphere so I decided to use NetBase to investigate what people had to say for the “Trend Tracker” report.  The conversations broke down as follows: 57% are supportive of decision, 19% are against it, 22% expressed disappointment that gay leaders are still banned and 2%cracked jokes.  Here are some more samples of the supportive comments:

Re the Boy Scouts’ lifting its ban on gay youth: Discrimination is NEVER a good institutional value — ending it is the truly moral choice.

This Eagle scout is happy to see the equality decision by the Boy Scouts. I’ll have to start donating to them again this year!

My soon to be Eagle scout was very concerned about being able to pursue his own advancement while gay scouts couldn’t. Equal opportunities.

I think the debate with continue…how do you think equal rights will evolve over the next 10 years?