US Boy Scouts to allow gay youth

Washington: The Boy Scouts of America agreed for the first time on Thursday to allow openly gay youths to join the organisation, but will maintain a ban on gay adult leaders.

Sixty-one per cent of the estimated 1,400 delegates of the BSA’s National Council at its annual meeting voted to end a ban that for decades has barred open homosexuality in the movement.

The resolution, passed during the gathering at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Centre in Grapevine, Texas, will go into force on January 1.

“The Boy Scouts of America will not sacrifice its mission, or the youth served by the movement, by allowing the organization to be consumed by a single, divisive and unresolved societal issue,” the BSA said in a statement, adding that there were no plans to further review the matter.

“While people have different opinions about this policy, we can all agree that kids are better off when they are in Scouting.”

The text said “no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.”

It updated the BSA’s “membership standards,” seen as symbolising traditional US values. But the measure reaffirmed existing rules for adult Scout leaders.

Interest groups were quick to react. The vote “is a significant victory for gay youth across the nation and a clear indication that the Boy Scouts’ ban on gay adult leaders will also inevitably end,” said Rich Ferraro with the gay rights group GLAAD. The BSA “heard from religious leaders, corporate sponsors and so many Scouting families who want an end to discrimination against gay people,” Ferraro said in a statement.

Chad Griffin with the Human Rights Campaign hailed what he called a “historic day for Boy Scouts.”

However, the new policy “doesn’t go far enough. Parents and adults of good moral character, regardless of sexual orientation, should be able to volunteer their time to mentor the next generation of Americans,” he added.

The BSA “can do better,” said Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout and executive director of Scouts for Equality.

“We welcome the news that the ban on gay Scouts is history, but our work isn’t over until we honour the Scout Law by making this American institution open and affirming to all.”

Tony Perkins with the conservative Family Research Council, however, vehemently disagreed, saying the delegates “succumbed to a concerted and manipulative effort by the national BSA leadership.”

The current BSA leadership “will bend with the winds of popular culture, and the whims of liberal special interest groups. There is little doubt that God will soon be ushered out of scouting,” he added.