Looks like the Boy Scouts’ of America’s ban on gay leaders is heading for the history books, as the Scouts’ president, Robert M. Gates, called to ban the ban on May 21 at the Boy Scouts’ annual national meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. He told executives at this meeting that “we must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be.”
According to a May 21 Boston Globe report, Gates went on to tell the executives that:
“cascading events — including potential employment-discrimination lawsuits and the impending Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, as well as mounting internal dissent over the exclusionary policy — had led him to conclude that the current rules “cannot be sustained.”
In a nod to the religious organizations that sponsor a majority of local Scout troops, he said they should be free to set guidelines for leaders.
“I support a policy that accepts and respects our different perspectives and beliefs,” he said, adding, “I truly fear that any other alternative will be the end of us as a national movement.”
In his speech, Gates, who is also a former director of the CIA, evoked his experience as defense secretary. In that role, he helped end the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy — which was similar to the current Boy Scouts policy toward Scout leaders — and discrimination against gay men and lesbians. He recalled that in 2010, a federal judge declared the military’s policy to be illegal.
The last major movement within the organization regarding LGBT rights went down in 2013, when, with more than 60 percent approval, the Scouts’ leadership voted to halt denying membership to youth on the basis of their sexual orientation. However, noted the Globe:
“[It left intact the even more disputed policy that no openly gay adults could serve in the organization. Since then, a Scout group in New York has defied the rules by employing an openly gay 18-year-old as a camp counselor, and several other councils across the country have expressed opposition to the ban.
Gates said Thursday, in prepared remarks released by the Boy Scouts, that the national leadership would take no action against defiant local councils. At the same time, he said that in the name of religious freedom, the Scouts should allow local sponsoring organizations “to determine the standards for their Scout leaders.” …
Gates took on the job as president in May 2014, for a two-year term. He said he had originally intended to put off consideration of the divisive issue of gay adults, allowing the Boy Scouts a respite after a contentious meeting in 2013 at which the organization decided to permit openly gay youths to belong to it.
He said that he had not yet made a formal proposal to the national board but that it must act soon to head off possible disaster. Though his position is voluntary, Gates, an Eagle Scout, wields enormous power in the Boy Scouts, which have been struggling to stem a shrinking membership for decades.”
You can read the complete text of Gates’ May 21 speech on the Boy Scouts of America website.
