Boy Scouts Vote to End Preposterous Ban on Gay Troop Leaders
The ridiculous ban preventing gay adults from leading Boy Scout groups could come to an end later this month following a unanimous vote last week by the group’s 17-member executive committee. The change will be effective immediately if its approved a meeting of the full 80-member executive board on July 27.
Under the new resolution, local scout units would be able to select adult leaders without regard to sexual orientation — a stance that several scout councils had already adopted in defiance of the official national policy.
“This change allows Scouting’s members and parents to select local units, chartered to organizations with similar beliefs, that best meet the needs of their families,” the BSA statement said. “This change would also respect the right of religious chartered organizations to continue to choose adult leaders whose beliefs are consistent with their own.”
The vote came two months after president of the Boy Scouts of America and former defense secretary Robert Gates called for an end to the ban.
“I must speak as plainly and bluntly to you as I spoke to presidents when I was director of the CIA and secretary of defense,” Gates said in May. “We must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be. The status quo in our movement’s membership standards cannot be sustained.”
