Boy Scouts Weighs LGBT Inclusivity

Today, the president of the Boy Scouts of America, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, told his organization, “We must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be. The status quo in our movement’s membership standards cannot be sustained.” Translation? The Boy Scouts’ blanket ban on gay adult leaders needs to come to an end.

Gates’ remarks are welcome but long overdue. Some local Boy Scouts councils have already openly criticized and defied their organization’s ban on gay adult leaders. (The organization decided in 2013 that youth cannot be denied membership based on their sexual orientation.)

So, did the Boy Scouts take a step—at least in words—towards LGBT inclusivity today? The answer can be found in Gates’ prepared remarks, which the Boy Scouts released earlier today. “[E]vents during the past year have confronted us with urgent challenges I did not foresee and which we cannot ignore. … Nor can we ignore the social, political and juridical changes taking place in our country—changes taking place at a pace over this past year no one anticipated.” Gates detailed which events he meant: regional debates over laws to protect people against employment discrimination based on their sexual orientation and the impending U.S. Supreme Court decision on gay marriage.

Again—translation? We may not like it, but the times are changing, and we must change with them.

Gates also explained that if the Boy Scouts waits any longer to change its leadership policy, legal action against them is likely. “… [I]f we wait for the courts to act, we could end up with a broad ruling that could forbid any kind of membership standard, including our foundational belief in our duty to God and our focus on serving the specific needs of boys,” he said. “Waiting for the courts is a gamble with huge stakes.”

Pushing the Boy Scouts to leave behind their discriminatory past is certainly a step in the right direction—but we’re not there yet. As educators across the United States know, the “specific needs” of boys (and all children for that matter) include welcoming and safe environments. And not providing identity safety, specifically in the form of LGBT inclusivity, is also a gamble at the expense of all adults, youth and families associated with the Boy Scouts.

And the national leadership of the Boy Scouts does not, in fact, seem to be headed toward blanket acceptance of gay adult leaders. Rather, as Gates shared in his remarks, the Boy Scouts will let local sponsoring organizations—many of which are churches—determine revisions to membership standards.

Teaching Tolerance applauds any change that leads to greater inclusively, but applying these changes on an ad hoc basis still leaves LGBT members—youth and adult—relegated to the margins.

Lindberg is a writer and associate editor for Teaching Tolerance.