A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I attended Boy Scout meetings at a neighborhood public school in Oakland, California, every Thursday.

OK, it wasn’t that long ago (just last century), and it wasn’t a galaxy away (just a continent), but it sure feels like a lot of time and space have passed since then. But also, in some ways, times haven’t changed at all.

The culture wars were not quite at the fever pitch they are today in the early 1990s, but they were a bit ahead of schedule in the San Francisco Bay Area. It would take years for the issue to become a problem nationally, but already by the time I was in middle school, the local Boy Scout councils were facing pressure from nonprofit groups and local governments to drop their ban on gay Scouts and leaders.

Now, my particular troop probably wouldn’t have batted an eye if a gay mother or father had volunteered for a leadership position in the troop. I grew up next to a gay couple. It just wasn’t a big deal, and nothing in the Scout paperwork or programming asked anyone at the time about their sexual orientation.

But nationally, there was a policy of no gay Scouts or leaders in the organization, and for this sin, my troop was kicked out of the middle school we had been meeting at for decades.

We eventually found a church about two miles away from the school, and some Scouts started showing up less after the meeting location change, but we were a well-established troop with a long history of yearly backpacking trips and survived just fine. Not all troops were so lucky.

As someone who lost their father when they were young, I always appreciated Scouts as a place where I could watch other Scouts interact with their fathers and do father-son things in a welcoming environment. It reminded me that life goes on and a better future awaits.

Unfortunately, it seems as though more and more cities are following Oakland’s lead and kicking both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts out of public schools. According to the Badger Institute, local Cub Scout leaders who used to be welcome in local schools to come in and recruit new families are being refused entrance.

“I gave many a talk like this myself,” Cub Scout leader Lucia Cronin said. “The principal would welcome us with open arms. Easy-peasy. And that’s the way it worked across Wisconsin.” NOT anymore.

“There’s been a fairly significant reduction in the ability to contact families through the schools,” La Crosse Boy Scout Councilman Joe Carlson said. And Wisconsin is not alone. West Virginia and Florida have passed legislation requiring public schools to open their doors to Scout leaders.

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But Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) vetoed similar legislation in Wisconsin, citing the importance of “local decision-making.” Of course, when it came time for a new mandatory curriculum on Hmong history, Evers suddenly couldn’t care less about “local decision-making,” but for now, Wisconsin Scout leaders are out of luck.

Children today are in greater need than ever of outdoor activities away from screens and mobile phones. They are even more in need of unifying patriotic organizations. Hopefully more principals will rethink their decisions to keep Scouts out of schools, and hopefully more governors will sign legislation letting them in.