Gov.Scott Walker Hits Emergency Brakes on Boy Scouts and gay Discrimination
Gov. Scott Walker, who recently expressed support for a ban on gay Boy Scout leaders because it “protected children,” said on Wednesday that he did not mean that children needed “physical protection” from gay scoutmasters – but rather protection from the debate over the ban.
In comments published on Tuesday by The Independent Journal Review, a news website that is popular with young conservatives, Mr. Walker said, “I have had a lifelong commitment to the Scouts and support the previous membership policy because it protected children and advanced Scout values.” But during a brief press conference in South Carolina on Wednesday, Mr. Walker said the decision on the ban was “up to the Boy Scouts” and added that his earlier remarks were not about protecting children from gay people.
“The protection was not a physical protection,” he said, but rather 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.”
Staking out increasingly conservative positions has emerged as a key part of Mr. Walker’s strategy to compete for votes against the 14 other Republicans running for president. He has been vocal in his opposition to same-sex marriage and his support for amending the United States Constitution to allow states to define marriage as between a man and a woman.
In response to another question, Mr. Walker indicated that he would consider Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina as a vice-presidential running mate if he won the Republican Party’s nomination, though he repeatedly emphasized that the notion was premature.
“Certainly Nikki’s a friend of mine, she has been a very capable governor, and there will be a long list of people like her, but again, like I said, it’s premature,” Mr. Walker said.
He did sketch out the kind of person he would seek as a running mate, if he earned the nomination: “Primarily someone who is capable of being an outstanding president if god forbid something were to happen to me,” as well as someone who “shares my values and my concerns.”
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