Boy Scouts end ban on gay adult leaders

The Boy Scouts of America Monday granted individual Scout units the ability to select leaders without regard to sexual orientation.

-Gay leaders who were previously removed from Scouting because of the ban would have the opportunity to reapply for volunteer positions.

“I understand that they are chartered by a lot of religious organizations”, he told KCTV5 news.

Earlier in the summer, some Southern Baptist leaders urged their churches to sever ties with the Boy Scouts of America over the pending new policy.

The policy for scout leaders comes two years after the BSA started to allow openly gay scout members.

Kim Stieglitz, an openly gay former Scout leader in Kirkwood, praised the decision.

In a contentious meeting in 2013, the Scouts decided to permit participation by gay youths but not adults. “I think it’s about time”.

HRC President Chad Griffin issued the following statement on the BSA announcement, “Today’s vote by the Boy Scouts of America to allow gay, lesbian and bisexual adults to work and volunteer is a welcome step toward erasing a stain on this important organization”.

Not surprisingly, there’s already a backlash-the Mormon Church, which has been a significant participant in the Boy Scouts’ efforts over the years, has threatened to pull out.

A vote today by the Boy Scouts of America ended a decades-old ban on gay adult leaders, a result many local scouts have been working hard to achieve.

Many Scouting leaders said they had not expected the Mormon church’s sharp response and threat to leave.

“We’re going to support the membership policy”, said president and scout executive Jeff Herrmann. “This will probably bring that cooling to a freeze”. Gates also cited broader gay-rights developments and warned that rigidly maintaining the ban “will be the end of us as a national movement”. In response to the change, the New York state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, announced Monday that his office was ending its investigation of the Scouts for violating state anti-discrimination laws.

“If there are some troops that will include (gay members), then maybe it will help them”, he said. “But that doesn’t mean the lawsuits won’t keep coming….”

There would be no change in the long-standing requirement that youth and adult Scout members profess a “duty to God”.

With this latest change, Gates and other Scout executives hope to defuse an issue that has caused growing turmoil, even as membership – more than 2.4 million youths in 2014, with almost 1 million adult volunteers – has steadily declined.