The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) are on track to allow gay and lesbian leaders into the organization, after an executive committee approved a resolution that would eliminate the standing ban against such adults.
Under the newly adopted resolution, BSA rules would allow people to be troop leaders regardless of their sexuality. The organization’s National Executive Board is set to ratify the resolution on 27 July and comments made by the BSA president, Robert Gates, in May indicate that it is likely to push the policy change through.
Gates told a crowd at the BSA meeting in Atlanta that if the organization upholds its ban on gay leaders, it “will be the end of us as a national movement”.
He said the changing national climate toward LGBT rights and mounting legal challenges against BSA because of the ban left the organization with few other options.
This issue was reinforced in Monday’s announcement, which also clarified that religious-chartered groups can “continue to choose adult leaders whose beliefs are consistent with their own”.
In May 2014, BSA announced that it would accept openly gay young males into the programme, but reinforced its ban on LGBT adults. Despite this, groups in New York and Colorado allowed gay and lesbian scout leaders.
If the resolution is adopted as described in BSA documents, leaders who were previously removed because of their sexuality could reapply for their positions.
The Scouts for Equality executive director, Zach Wahls, who has been a leader in the movement to change the policy, celebrated the vote on Monday.
“For decades, the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on gay adults has stood as a towering example of explicit, institutional homophobia in one of America’s most important and recognizable civic organizations,” he said in an emailed statement.
“While this policy change is not perfect – BSA’s religious chartering partners will be allowed to continue to discriminate against gay adults – it is difficult to overstate the importance of today’s announcement.”
