Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker: Boy Scouts ban on gay troop leaders needed

[Walker] said Tuesday that the Boy Scouts of America should keep its blanket ban on openly gay leaders because the policy “protected children and advanced Scout values.”

“Writing in an exemption for troops organized by religious organizations undermines the potentially historic nature of today’s vote”, says HRC President Chad Griffin.

The US Supreme Court previously ruled in 2000 in favour of a gay ban in the Boy Scouts, saying that the prohibition against openly homosexual members was part of its right as a private organisation to free association.

“I was totally shocked and deeply hurt and very raging and still am”, he said.

What shaped the Boy Scouts’ most recent policy change are not spurious claims about gay adults, but the genuine religious beliefs of some of the Boy Scouts’ most loyal partners.

That would permit Scout-sponsoring organizations such as Southern Baptist and Catholic churches to continue their policies excluding gays while giving other Scout troops the ability to pick leaders without regard to their sexual orientation.

The Boy Scouts’ executive committee voted to end the ban on Monday.

Walker’s comments have drawn criticism from gay rights activist groups such as the Human Rights Campaign, which called for Walker to renounce his statement and apologize on the grounds that his remarks were “offensive, outrageous, and absolutely unacceptable”.

The Canteen Boy sketch on SNL served as a parody of the Boy Scouts ban on gays in the organization. The adult leadership standard of the Boy Scouts of America still read the same way they always have: “The applicant must possess the moral, educational, and emotional qualities that the Boy Scouts of America deems necessary to afford positive leadership to youth”.

“I would estimate that 65 percent of them are religious or faith-based organizations”, he said in an email.

He added: “We can act on our own or be forced to act”.

In a statement Monday, the BSA said the resolution was approved by the executive committee on Friday, and would become official policy if ratified by the organization’s larger National Executive Board at a meeting on July 27.

Some faith leaders said their continued support for the BSA would hinge on that caveat. Current membership, according to the BSA, is about 2.4 million boys and about 1 million adults. They provide outdoor activities, community service opportunities and educational programs for boys as well as young men.