While Scouts Canada has been open to including LGBTQ members and leaders for many years, the Boys Scouts of America (BSA) – which is a completely separate organization, although both are members of the worldwide Scout movement founded by Lord Baden-Powell, following the Boer War – has struggled with the idea of allowing openly gay, lesbian or trans individuals to be Scout leaders for many years.
The controversy raging around gay Scouts and Scout leaders in the BSA is decades old. In 1978, the organization formally banned both gay youth and gay and lesbian adults from being involved in Scouting since, in the eyes of its national leaders, homosexuality was ‘immoral’ and at complete odds with the ideals of Scouting, which sought to instill morally high standards in American youth (male youth – by the way. Unlike Scouts Canada, which is co-ed, the BSA is for boys. Girls go into Brownies and the Girl Guides).
The BSA fought for its right to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation all the way to the Supreme Court, where it won its case in 2000. In 2013, after often fractious internal debate, the BSA formally allowed openly gay youth to be Scouts, but continued to ban homosexual/bisexual adults as Scout leaders. What their position is on trans-folk, I honestly don’t know, but assume it is not particularly supportive.
Following a decision in June, 2015, by the BSA’s National Executive Board, that ban has been essentially lifted allowing individual troops – many of which are faith-based and/or sponsored by various church groups – to make their own decision on who they allow to be Scout leaders.
Much of the apprehension around having gay/bi men serve as Scout leaders, of course, centers around the (erroneous) idea that having a homosexual in close contact with young teenage boys – going camping with them, being alone with them – offers the potential for sexual impropriety to occur between a Scout leader and his charges. It’s that whole configuration of pedophilia, and ephebophilia with homosexuality, which has been used for years to cast slanders against gay and bisexual men. Interestingly, it is rarely openly gay or bisexual men who are a danger to impressionable youth, but rather closeted men or men who actually identify as heterosexual who pose a far greater risk.
The ban against gay adults in Scouting was unsustainable, especially after the ban against gay youth was lifted. How much sense did it make to allow a gay kid to be involved in Scouting, even encouraged as a way to offer him structure and focus in his life, only to kick him out when he turned 18 and about to become an Eagle Scout? I think the answer is obvious, as clearly did the National Executive Board... finally.
The original start to this whole discussion on a national level started after Jen Tyrell, an openly lesbian den mother with her son’s cub pack, was dismissed for being lesbian. That was in 2012. Various advocacy groups such as GLAAD, Scouts for Equality, and others got involved and lobbied for change. In 2013 the National Executive Board rescinded its blanket ban against gay youth, but still kept its ban against LGBTQ adults being involved.
Predictably, various faith groups, such as the Church of Latter Day Saints (the Mormon Church), the Roman Catholic Church, and Baptists are ‘deeply troubled’ by the new edict. The Mormon Church has been heavily involved with American Scouting for over a century. In fact, any boy who is in a Mormon congregation is automatically part of the Boy Scouts. The religious life of young Mormon males and Scouting are deeply intertwined, and the rites and rituals of the LDS Church are consciously and intentionally tied to Scouting. As a young Mormon male rises through the Church as first a member, then deacon, teacher and finally a priest (all males over a certain age are priests of the Church), he also rises through the various Scout positions as well. The Boy Scouts of America has been described as the ‘youth program’ of LDS, and approximately 20 per cent of all Scouts in the U.S. are Mormon, with approximately 17 per cent of Scout troops being affiliated with the Church or sponsored by it.
The Boy Scouts has about 2.5 million members between the ages of seven and 21, as well as 960,000 volunteers in local units, according to the organization. However, membership has steadily declined by about four to six per cent a year over the last several years, in part because of the BSA’s ban against gay or lesbian adults being involved.
The decision by the BSA to now allow gay troop leaders poses a serious challenge to those churches intimately tied to Scouting. Some will opt to secede from the movement, essentially creating parallel, but separate, Scout-like organizations and fracturing the movement itself. Others will continue to remain within the BSA but take advantage of the rider that individual faith groups may continue to hire Scout leaders "whose beliefs are consistent with their own", essentially keeping the door open to not hiring openly gay or lesbian leaders. Others will be fine with it, and still others, such as the Unitarians, United Church, and the Union for Reform Judaism, plan on returning to the Scouting fold following their boycotting of the BSA over the original ban.
Of course the BSA’s decision still misses the mark of true equality for all by allowing what it styles as some sort of religious exemption. Scouting is about fairness to all; having a profound moral compass that directs one to do the right thing. And that goes beyond helping little old ladies across the street. The message the BSA should be sending to its young members is that everyone is to be respected and treated fairly.
The move to allow openly gay or lesbian Scout leaders is a move in the right direction, granted, but allowing for ‘religious exemptions’ to that new policy makes the lifting of the ban merely a half-hearted move. It is a weak attempt at compromise and accommodation, but it is a start.
