NEW YORK (AP) — The executive committee of the Boy Scouts of America
has unanimously approved a resolution that would end the organization's
blanket ban on gay adult leaders and let individual Scout units set
their own policy on the long-divisive issue. Units sponsored by churches
opposed to the change could maintain the ban if they choose.
In a
statement Monday, the BSA said the resolution was approved by the
17-member executive committee on Friday, and would become official
policy immediately if ratified by the organization's 80-member National
Executive Board at a meeting on July 27.
The committee action follows an emphatic speech in May by the organization's president, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates,
declaring that the long-standing ban on participation by openly gay
adults was no longer sustainable. He and other BSA leaders said the ban
was likely to be the target of lawsuits that the Scouts were apt to
lose.
In 2013, after bitter internal debate, the BSA decided to allow openly gay youth as scouts, but not gay adults as leaders.
Under
the new resolution, local scout units would be able to select adult
leaders without regard to sexual orientation — a stance that several
scout councils have already adopted in defiance of the official national
policy.
"This change allows Scouting's
members and parents to select local units, chartered to organizations
with similar beliefs, that best meet the needs of their families," the
BSA statement said. "This change would also respect the right of
religious chartered organizations to continue to choose adult leaders
whose beliefs are consistent with their own."
Several
denominations that sponsor large numbers of Scout units — including the
Roman Catholic Church, the Mormon church and the Southern Baptist Convention — have been apprehensive about ending the ban on gay adults.
Southern Evangelical Seminary President Richard Land,
who formerly led the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious
Liberty Commission, said he was glad the policy allowed an exemption
for religiously sponsored groups, but it didn't resolve his main
concern: That neither boys or girls in scouting should have leaders who
are sexually attracted to their gender, whether the leader is gay or
straight.
"If you put them in the compromising situations that you
are sometimes in with Scout leaders and Scouts, in terms of camping and
other situations, it could lead to great tragedy for children," Land
said. "It's best to avoid the temptation."
In a memo sent Monday
to local Scout officials nationwide, the BSA's top leaders said they had
consulted their religious partners before acting on the resolution, and
they pledged to defend the right of any church-sponsored units to
continue excluding gay adults from leadership posts.
The BSA
"rejects any interference with or condemnation of the diverse beliefs of
chartering organizations on matters of marriage, family, and
sexuality," the memo said.
The Mormon church, in a statement,
indicated that this stance was crucial to its continued role as a
leading sponsor of Boy Scout units.
"As a chartering organization, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
has always had the right to select Scout leaders who adhere to moral
and religious principles that are consistent with our doctrines and
beliefs," the church said. "Any resolution adopted by the Boy Scouts of
America regarding leadership in Scouting must continue to affirm that
right."
The BSA's deference to the religious organizations was criticized by Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT-rights group.
"Half
measures are unacceptable and discriminatory exemptions have no place
in the Boy Scouts," Griffin said in a statement. "It's long overdue that
BSA leaders demonstrate true leadership and embrace a full national
policy of inclusion."
Among other points in the BSA's memo:
—Prospective
employees of the national organization could no longer be denied a
staff position on the basis of sexual orientation.
—Gay leaders
who were previously removed from Scouting because of the ban would have
the opportunity to reapply for volunteer positions.
—There would be no change in the long-standing requirement that youth and adult Scout members profess a "duty to God."
Gates,
who became the BSA's president in May 2014, said at the time that he
personally would have favored ending the ban on gay adults, but he
opposed any further debate after the Scouts' policymaking body upheld
the ban. In May, however, he said at the BSA's annual national meeting
that recent events "have confronted us with urgent challenges I did not
foresee and which we cannot ignore."
He cited a defiant
announcement by the BSA's New York City chapter in early April that it
had hired Pascal Tessier, the nation's first openly gay Eagle Scout, as a
summer camp leader. Gates also cited broader developments related to
gay rights, and warned that rigidly maintaining the ban "will be the end
of us as a national movement."
The Scouts' resolution was hailed by Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout raised by two lesbian moms who now heads the advocacy group Scouts for Equality.
"While
this policy change is not perfect — BSA's religious chartering partners
will be allowed to continue to discriminate against gay adults — it is
difficult to overstate the importance of today's announcement," Wahls
said.
For a variety of reasons, the Boy Scouts — like several
other major youth organizations — have experienced a membership decline
in recent decades. Current membership, according to the BSA, is about
2.4 million boys and about 1 million adults.
___
Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York and Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City contributed to this report
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