Reply #113: Depends on the troop.

[Xithras]

Boys do pay dues, but only a tiny portion goes to the national organization. Most of the dues goes to the local council to pay insurance costs, and to pay a couple of council level employees (a council covers a large region, and usually includes hundreds of troops and packs, so they do need secreataries to keep the paperwork straight). It's true that a portion of those dues do go to national, but it isn't much. Morally, I balance the roughly $2 that BSA national made off my son and I last year against the roughly $150 I donated to our local GLSEN chapter, and the $50 I donated to the Stanislaus Pride Center.

As for the second part of your question, it again comes back to the particular troop. My sons troop would never ask a gay boy to leave, and the Scoutmaster would actively intervene if he found out that any of the boys were harassing another. He's a fairly conservative guy, but he has no tolerance for bigots or harassment.