Intrigued, I wanted to know if there had been any local “victims.” I found a local gay male couple who had been married in California during that five-month window between the overturning of Prop. 22 and the adoption of Prop. 8.

Here is the first installment in a multi-part series about Prop. 8’s long reach to southeast Texas. Come back in a couple of weeks and I’ll have more:

http://theaggieinsurgency.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/aggies-dont-lie-cheat-steal-nor-break-up-other-aggies-marriages-prop-8s-long-and-intrusive-reach-to-texas-am/

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2009/01/05/090105sh_shouts_ozols

*According to BMI anyways.

Ever since I reached double digits age, I’ve been below recommended weight. No one has made a fuss about it though. Even less since transitioning (I had comments “You should eat more” before - ironically, pre-transition no one would have said much for being overweight, but post-transition they would probably say “You should lose weight”).

“it seems completely insane that the BSA doesn’t provide for exemptions through doctor approval.”

A point being made repeatedly in the Scouting lists. Now, at Philmont this same table has been used for years and they’re quite strict about it. Few people made a fuss because a week-long or 10-day trek at Philmont is truly stressful (it’s in the Sangre de Cristo mountains in N.E. New Mexico), to the point that one or two people die from a heart attack every other year there. But they didn’t use it anywhere else. Now, apparently, they are.

BMI Nazis, eh? Is that where this table comes from?

When I was 15, I was just about 5′0″, and about 85 lbs (range is 97-138).

As an adult, I’m about 5′6″, and about 100-105 lbs (range is 118-167).

No mention is made of underweight. Maybe they think it’s so rare it doesn’t exist except in modeling/gymnastics etc where there’s tons of pressure to maintain absurdly low weight?

Thanks for bringing this to the attention of Amp and Alas readers — it seems completely insane that the BSA doesn’t provide for exemptions through doctor approval. That is, even if they’re going to be the BMI Nazis, they at least can acknowledge that BMI doesn’t capture an individual’s health accurately, and can allow a doctor to note that your organs, joints etc. all work fine and that you have no health problems of concern (e.g. no high blood pressure), so you can go on such trips safely. Frankly, it just seems stupid to make people get a doctor’s form and base so much of it on BMI and so little on actual medical measurements of health.

It might make sense if the weight limits were based on what rural health providers could handle — there *are* weights that exceed what 1980s-era stretchers and ambulances can handle — but those would be so high (literally a quarter ton) that it’s extremely unlikely a person that heavy would be able to participate in a canoe trip.

I wonder why they did this?

*cough*

I think most of us have answers.

I think that you won’t like them.

—Myca

No, the biggest one is on the 3rd page, part B. Anyone engaged in a high-adventure activity (e.g., a multiday backpacking trip or canoe trip) or any activity where you are somewhere that it will take more than 30 minutes to get someone out to you to evacuate you must meet height/weight guidelines as composed by the revised Dietary Guidelines for Americans from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and the Dept. of Health & Human Services.

The BSA is about to block a whole bunch of Scouts from going on high-adventure trips and just about all other of the activities that they most enjoy and that are what get and keep kids in Scouting. Not by disqualifying the kids, mind you (although it might) but by disqualifying most adults from being able to go (and you have to have 2 adults minimum on such trips).

For example: I’m 6′ 2″. According to this chart the recommended weight for that height is 148 to 219 pounds. I was last within that weight range when I was in college, and that only briefly because I was on a diet study. The “Allowable Exception” range is 211 - 252. I haven’t weighed less than 260 for about 20 years. Of course, during the last 15 years I’ve been on about 12 canoe trips into Canada, Minnesota and Michigan with no problem.

I wonder why they did this?

Doug S., did Saddam Hussein’s regime only kill Kurds? For one thing, I seem to recall that a large number of Iranians died at the hands of his army. Then there were the Marsh Arabs. How many indigenous Shiites did he kill? I think your number is likely a bit short.

The argument seems to be that the system is sexist, therefore men would not be required to remove their religious headgear, and therefore the system is sexist. She offers no evidence to back any of this up.

Some thoughts on mental illness and how treatment of the mentally ill intersects with other social justice issues.

Using news clips to construct a troubling narrative of power in Gaza.

Bush did something right for once! New retirement protections for same-sex couples.

I thought the “Ticks” song was clever for its genre — though it plays into fairly standard stereotypes of woman-must-pretend-to-chastity, what doesn’t? — but then I haven’t had the traumatic tick experiences you apparently have.