The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) recently made a major change to their standards policy. Now gay young men are permitted to join, earn merit badges, and ultimately become prestigious card carrying Eagle Scouts. This also means Scouts who come out as gay will not be thrown out of the organization as many have been in the past, including my friend, Jay.
Jay came out as gay when he was 15 and his scout leaders told him he was no longer welcome. That was five years ago.
My youngest brother is gay and just received his Eagle Scout Award a couple weeks ago. He still can't be "out" to his leaders and fellow scouts because his troop which is organized within a Mormon congregation remains an intolerant place for gay youth.
Even though the BSA was forced to make concessions in its admittance standards gay men are still not allowed to be Scout Leaders at any level.
In 2000 the Supreme Court upheld a ruling in a New Jersey case where Assistant Scoutmaster James Dale was dismissed from his position in the BSA for being an outspoken gay activist. The Court ruled that the BSA as a private institution can discriminate against whomever it wants.
Since that ruling there have been numerous demonstrations against the BSA's bigoted policy. Several Eagle Scouts have returned their awards in protest, many parents have removed their children from the BSA and many corporate donors have cut their funding. Both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney denounced the ban on gay Scouts during the 2012 presidential campaign.
This pressure has exacted a heavy toll on the Boy Scouts and that's why the organization was compelled to allow gay youth to remain in their troops even though on principle the BSA delegates (most of whom are faithful Latter Day Saints) believe homosexuality is sinful:
http://www.onmyhonor.net/impact-of-open-homosexuality-in-scouting/
Though many are applauding the new Scouting standards as progressive and a sign of greater equality to come the BSA will receive the Pink Brick Award at the 2013 San Francisco Pride celebration. The Pink Brick is a mock-award bestowed on those who have shown particular animus and/or disregard for the rights of gays and lesbians. It's named for the first brick that was thrown in the 1969 Stonewall Riots that kicked off the Gay Rights Movement.
http://sfpride.org/pink-brick/
Those delegates who succeeded in voting down the admittance of gay Eagle Scouts as adult leaders argued claimed that such men would be a threat to the BSA's young male participants. They asserted that it would be as irresponsible as allowing heterosexual men to serve as leaders of girl scout troops; that the camaraderie and camp-outs would prove too much of a temptation and opportunity for them to resist sexually abusing the Scouts. This skewed hypothesis won out at the annual BSA delegation on May 23rd, 2013 in Texas. This makes me wonder whether these men would trust themselves around a group of young women and girls or maybe they simply believe that gay men are pedophiles. There are several thousands of women serving as den-mothers, leaders and camp counselors within the BSA today and their orientation isn't scrutinized for a second.
The bottom line is that the Boy Scouts of America, unlike Scouts Canada and United Kingdom Scouting Association, remain intrinsically homophobic and discriminatory and if it doesn't fully commit to human rights soon it will shortly become obsolete.
