May 2014 – The Boy Scouts of America

5. May 2014 – The Boy Scouts of America

The Boy Scouts of America BSA, one of the largest private youth organizations in the United States, has policies which prohibit atheists, agnostics and, unti l January 20 4, prohibited all “open or avowed” homosexuals from membership in its Scouting progr am. The ban on “open or avowed” homosexual adults from membership remains in effect. BSA has denied or revoked membership status or leadership positions for violation of these foundational principles. The BSA contends that its policies are essential in its mission to instill in young people the values of the Scout Oath and Law. Datum 9: “The unfair reason why twin Eagle Scouts have same merit badges but only one of them will get to stay in Boy Scouts. ” Datum 10: “New Boy Scouts president Robert Gates says he would have allowed gay adults.” Seven Building Tasks of discourse on datum 9 and 10 are analyzed and elaborated as to be seen below. The significance task of these tweets can be seen from the foregrounding of adjective “unfair” followed by the verb phrase “will get to stay ” as it display the injustice suffered by the LGBT community, symbolized by an LGBT teen, especially when a big youth organization with members comes from a lot of different backgrounds as displayed by “Eagle Scouts”. This organization surely has a huge impact in the society, whether they intend it to be or not, which surely they do as it is shown by the principles they hold and the sort of activities they do to maintain those principles. One of the ways is the signature move of awarding the accomplished actions as an actualization of their principles as reflected by the specific noun “merit badges”. The continuation of these principles is underway changes as it is altering in the field of leadership as signified by “new Boy Scouts president” and “gay adults” which would have an impact in the injustice issue discussed earlier. From the activity task, The Huffington Post ‟s Gay Voices HuffPostGay enacted the action of information sharing of the current as well as its upcoming situation and their backgrounds in the Boy Scouts leadership and policies as displayed by the verbs “have” and “says” in informing the issue which is happening within the organization. As for the upcoming situation delivers a sense of alternation in the nature of its policy and possible recruitment procedure is shown by the phrasal verbs “will get to stay” and “would have allowed” as it informs about an alternation which is in favor on the behalf of the LGBT community members who are interested in joining the youth organization, the informing nature also evolved into an act of encouraging. The enactment of the identity task is exhibited by the phrases “unfair reason” and “only one of them” as it reflects the news aggregator as an announcer, even almost as a bearer of justice, as it intends to allot the new currency of the digital world known as information. In the process, the information shared specifically being focused on a youth organization “Boy Scouts”, even more specific “Eagle Scouts”. The issue brings up a leader figure “Boy Scouts president Robert Gates” who will be having power in accordance to change the policy of the organizations recruitment and membership as shown by the noun phrase “gay adults”. As for the relationship task, the news aggregator enacted an intended close connection with its audience by using simple and familiar common linguistic units, such as “unfair”, “but”, and “twin”, and the noun phrases “will get to stay” and “would have allowed” which support the idea of make ease of the mutual understanding between the news aggregator and its audience. On the other hand, it intended to relate itself to a smaller group of audience, the sort of group which has a concern in such issue, as shown by a specific noun of an organization “Boy Scouts” and a specific noun of a personal name “Robert Gates”. The dealing of the social good in the politics task is displayed by a number of different phrases, “unfair reason” for a start. The phrase deals with the revelation of the reputation and integrity of a specific youth group of “Eagle Scouts” which nonetheless would have an impact on the name of its mother institution of “Boy Scouts”, moreover it questioned and jeopardizing its leader‟s ascendancy as shown by the display of specific title of “Boy Scouts president”. In the connections task, the news aggregator cleverly connected the injustice gesture, as reflected by the adjective “unfair”, breaching tightly held principles, as reflected by the clauses “twin have merit badges ” and “only one of them”, of the highly respected youth organization, as reflected by “Boy Scouts”. The anticipation of proceeding wave of fresh and progressive policies in favor of the LGBT community members who is taken interest in the affiliation with the organization is connected with the nouns “New Boy Scouts president” and “gay”. As for the sign systems and knowledge task, the news aggregator used a complete comprehended organizational body and its paraphernalia. In it; a number of organization names, including the mother with the noun “Boy Scouts” and its branch with the specified noun “Eagle Scouts”, moreover a specific leader figure title with “New Boy Scouts president”, the actualization of principles as well as achievement and rewarding symbol with “have merit badges”, the proceeding membership preference with the countable noun “adults”. They are all in favor of the enactment for this task; this is well meant to entice and be understood by a wide audience as also shown by the noun “reason”. The identification of the analyzed building tasks above can be seen from the table below. Table 3.5 Identification of Building Tasks of Data 9 10 No. Indicators Building Task S igni fi cance A ct iv it y Ident it ies R el at ionsh ip Poli ti cs C onn ec ti ons Sign s y st em s and kn ow ledge 1. unfair √ √ √ √ √ 2. reason √ √ √ 3. twin √ √ 4. Eagle Scouts √ √ √ √ 5. have √ √ √ √ 6. merit badges √ √ √ 7. but √ √ 8. only one of them √ √ 9. will get to stay √ √ √ 10. New √ √ √ 11. Boy Scouts √ √ √ √ √ √ 12. president √ √ √ √ √ 13. Robert Gates √ √ 14. says √ √ 15. would have allowed √ √ 16. gay √ √ √ 17. adults √ √ √

6. June 2014 – Marriage Equality