Gay Boys Allowed in the Boy Scouts

In a historic turn for the Boy Scouts of America, the door has been opened for gay boys. The ban on gay adult leaders, however, still stands. Meeting in Grapevine, Texas, in their national congress, the 1,400 delegates of the Association of Boy Scouts of America made the decision, which was strongly advised by Barack Obama, the honorary president of the association.

“Today … the Boy Scouts of America’s National Council approved a resolution to remove the restriction denying membership to youth on the basis of sexual orientation alone,” the statement said, adding that this clause will take effect from Jan. 1, 2014. The resolution was approved by 61.44 percent of the vote, against 38.56 percent.

In the United States there are about 100,000 scout groups, which involve around 3 million children and 1 million adults. Seventy percent of the groups are financially supported by religious bodies — 37 percent Mormon, 10 percent Methodist and 8 percent Catholic. Not everyone, of course, was in favor of abolishing the ban. There was a real “political struggle”: Those in favor of homosexuals entering the Boy Scout world turned to political consultants to pressure around 120 local counsels to ensure the votes needed to win. For their part, opponents literally clogged the inboxes of delegates explaining the reasons for opposing the measure.

In the end, gay boys have been allowed into the Boy Scouts. It remains to be seen what will happen now. It appears that only 48 percent of parents approve of this “openness”; many boys may leave the organization. Robert Schwarzwalder, the vice president of the conservative Christian group Family Research Council and father of two scouts, is convinced this will be the case: “I think there will be a loss of hundreds of thousands of boys and parents.”

Tony Perkins, the president of the FRC, spoke of a “moral compromise,” and said that the leaders had “abandoned the timeless values that have served the organization well for more than 100 years.”

Conservatives who fought to uphold the ban based their conviction on the scout’s motto, which dates back to 1911: “On my honor I will do my best … to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.” It’s precisely on that phrase, “morally straight,” that the aversion to homosexuality in the scouts is based, which in 1991 triggered the ban.

Scouting is a very important institution in the U.S.: The BSA was founded in 1910 by William D. Boyce, Ernest Thompson Seton and Daniel Carter Beard as part of the Scout Movement. Since then it has expanded its activities to the international level. The individual units of BSA are managed mainly by volunteers. On the board of directors for the BSA are, among others, the CEOs of major players like the telephone company AT&T and Ernst & Young.