What droppg the ban on gay lears means for the Boy Suts | PBS NewsHour

Contents:

• BOY SUTS OF AMERI VOT TO ALLOW GAY SUT LEARS
• BOY SUTS TO REPEAL BAN ON GAY LEARS, WH LIMATNS
• BOY SUTS OF AMERI ENDS BAN ON GAY ADULT LEARS
• GAY BOY SUTS? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR BOYS?
• BOY SUTS OPEN DOORS TO GAY LEARS — BUT THEY'RE IN NO RH
• BOY SUTS CHANGE POLICY ON GAY LEARS
• CAN A GAY BOY SUT SHARE A TENT WH ANOTHER BOY? BOY SUTS SURVEY MEMBERS ON ANTI-GAY POLICY
• THE BOY SUTS AND THEIR POLICY AGAST GAY LEARS
• BOY SUTS OF AMERI LIFTS BAN ON GAY ADULT LEARS
• WHAT DROPPG THE BAN ON GAY LEARS MEANS FOR THE BOY SUTS
• HOW THE BOY SUTS CHANGED THEIR STANCE ON GAY LEARS
• BOY SUTS TO ANNOUNCE END OF BAN ON GAY LEARS
• BOY SUTS OF AMERI ENDS BAN ON GAY SUT LEARS
• BOY SUTS OF AMERI LIFTS BAN ON GAY LEARS

BOY SUTS OF AMERI VOT TO ALLOW GAY SUT LEARS

The erng body of the Boy Suts of Ameri voted Monday to end s s-long ban on gay sut anizatn's natnal executive board, meetg Texas, nclud that the policy of excludg gay adults "was no longer legally fensible. " The cisn was approved by 79 percent of the the natnal ban is gone, effective immediately, lol sutg uns reta the abily to reject gay applints for learship posns if hirg them would vlate the un's relig Boy Suts natnal anizatn said would fend any lol sutg group's "good fah refal" to adm a sutg lear based upon the group's relig prcipl. "The vote reprents a remarkably fast turnaround for the Boy Suts, which only two years ago voted to adm gay young people as suts but kept the ban on adult gay sut then, sutg officials have said, rapidly movg legal velopments forced a told the anizatn May that mt brace for change.

"The vote allowg lol uns to turn away gay lears was nmned by some former Sut lears as a timid measure that would allow discrimatn to McGrah, a gay adult lear om wh the Transatlantic Council of Boy Suts of Ameri, lled the vote "an expedient move to preempt legal actn agast BSA natnal, rather than a genue attempt to make BSA clive. "John Stemberger, a Florida lawyer who started a breakaway anizatn lled Trail Life USA after the 2013 vote to adm gay Suts, said by endg the natnal ban on gay sut lears, the Boy Suts "plac the church and relig stutns who sponsor BSA troops at greater legal risk. Supreme Court upheld the Suts' right to exclu an assistant sutmaster, Jam Dale, after he me out as gay.

BOY SUTS TO REPEAL BAN ON GAY LEARS, WH LIMATNS

"Today’s vote by the Boy Suts of Ameri to allow gay, lbian and bisexual adults to work and volunteer is a wele step toward erasg a sta on this important anizatn, " said Human Rights Campaign Print Chad Griff a statement after the vote. The Boy Suts of Ameri is expected to end s ban on openly gay lears a limed manner Monday, a historic cisn for one of the natn’s largt youth anizatns, whose s-long stggle over whether to clu gays s ranks has both mirrored and fueled the broar natnal bate over LGBT rights.

The Suts’ current adult learship standards policy prohibs membership to “dividuals who are open or avowed homosexuals. Over the past two s, the anizatn has been creasgly embroiled by battl over whether to ntue excludg gays, a stance that has threatened the Suts wh the specter of stly ligatn and ed some rporate sponsors, cludg Merck, UPS, Uned Way and Intel to whdraw support.

In 2013, the Suts cid to allow gay youths to participate sutg, a policy that took effect the followg year. Secretary of Defense, ed a speech at the Boy Suts’ annual natnal meetg this year to ll on the anizatn to repeal the ban on openly gay adults. In his speech, Gat said that a number of factors, cludg potential discrimatn lawsus, ternal disput over the policy and the impendg Supreme Court gay marriage cisn had nvced him that the le was untenable.

BOY SUTS OF AMERI ENDS BAN ON GAY ADULT LEARS

NEW YORK -- The Boy Suts of Ameri on Monday end s blanket ban on gay adult lears while allowg church-sponsored Sut uns to mata the excln for relig new policy, aimed at easg a ntroversy that has embroiled the Boy Suts for years, tak effect immediately. The stage had been set for Monday's actn on May 21, when Gat told the Suts' natnal meetg that the long-standg ban on participatn by openly gay adults was no longer staable. "In 2013, after heated ternal bate, the BSA cid to allow openly gay youth as suts, but not gay adults as lears.

Several nomatns that llectively sponsor close to half of all Sut uns -- cludg the Roman Catholic church, the Mormon church and the Southern Baptist Conventn -- have been apprehensive about endg the ban on gay BSA's top lears have pledged to fend the right of any church-sponsored uns to ntue excludg gays as adult volunteers. -Gay lears who were prevly removed om Sutg bee of the ban would have the opportuny to reapply for volunteer posns.

-If otherwise qualified, a gay adult would be eligible to serve as a Sutmaster or un, who beme the BSA's print May 2014, said at the time that he personally would have favored endg the ban on gay adults, but he opposed any further bate after the Suts' policymakg body upheld the ban. He ced an announcement by the BSA's New York Cy chapter early April that had hired Pasl Tsier, the natn's first openly gay Eagle Sut, as a summer mp lear.

GAY BOY SUTS? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR BOYS?

Gat also ced broar gay-rights velopments and warned that rigidly matag the ban "will be the end of as a natnal movement. Sce then, the exclnary policy has prompted numero major rporatns to spend charable donatns to the Suts, and has straed relatns wh some municipali that ver gays their non-discrimatn Upton, a lawyer for the LGBT-rights group Lambda Legal, qutned whether the BSA's new policy to let church-sponsored uns ntue to exclu gay adults would be staable.

4 ln boys and about 1 ln the 2013 cisn to adm gay youth, some nservativ spl om the BSA to form a new group, Trail Life USA, which has created s own ranks, badg and uniforms. Later, 2015, lifted s ban on gay sutmasters, spe the anizatn’s history of sexual abe by the same. In 1990, the BSA revoked Jam Dale’s volvement on the grounds that homosexuals were banned om membership.

At the time, the BSA stated that havg gay Sutmasters ntradicted the Sut Oath keepg s members “morally straight. In fact, BSA dit a whole paragraph s Sut or Sutmaster eligibily requirements to those who have homosexual clatns. The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms homosexualy, the clatn of beg sexually attracted to the same sex, is herently disorred (CCC 2357).

BOY SUTS OPEN DOORS TO GAY LEARS — BUT THEY'RE IN NO RH

An all-male anizatn cludg gays should have secured the protectn and safety of the young Suts participatg the BSA.

BOY SUTS CHANGE POLICY ON GAY LEARS

Now that the Boy Suts of Ameri is allowg gay lears and volunteers, a few chapters across the untry have started up at LGBT centers like the.

CAN A GAY BOY SUT SHARE A TENT WH ANOTHER BOY? BOY SUTS SURVEY MEMBERS ON ANTI-GAY POLICY

" Even though the Boy Sut natnal policy changed to allow gay adult volunteers like Simpson, the suts ma an exemptn statg relig charters, like church, uld choose to ban gay lears. Simpson and other parent volunteers turned their applitn forms right after the Boy Suts reversed their posn on gay lears and volunteers. “On Monday July 27 the natnal executive board ratified a rolutn removg the natnal rtrictn on openly gay lears and employe, ” Boy Suts of Ameri Print Robert Gat said a vio statement on Monday.

THE BOY SUTS AND THEIR POLICY AGAST GAY LEARS

“Today’s vote by the Boy Suts of Ameri to allow gay, lbian and bisexual adults to work and volunteer is a wele step toward erasg a sta on this important anizatn, ” said Human Rrights Campaign Print Chad Griff a statement. “However, the admissn of openly gay lears is nsistent wh the doctr of the Church and what have tradnally been the valu of the Boy Suts of Ameri.

Gat lled for the Suts to end s ban on gay adults remarks (PDF) at the anizatn’s natnal bs meetg, held May 21.

However, former Boy Sut learship team member Jon Langbert told CNN’s Carol Costello he believ the new policy isn’t a cure-all, sce lol troops will still be allowed to make the cisn on whether to allow gay lears. ” asked Langbert, who is openly gay and says he gave up his learship role when other fathers plaed. “It creat a b of a ms when you don’t have one global policy for the Suts, ” Langbert add, notg that the natnal anizatn allows gay adults as employe.

BOY SUTS OF AMERI LIFTS BAN ON GAY ADULT LEARS

” The are some of the qutns on a survey beg nducted by the Boy Suts of Ameri as the private youth anizatn prepar to ci whether should end s ntroversial policy banng gay Suts and lears.

WHAT DROPPG THE BAN ON GAY LEARS MEANS FOR THE BOY SUTS

But this time, the BSA ed the survey to add qutns about the policy banng gays (those qutns went only to adults) spokman Deron Smh, who provid the qutns on the survey to NBC News, said an email that “the BSA is mted to dialogue on the topic of s membership standards policy, wh the Sutg fay at the lol and natnal levels. The Boy Suts’ policy has creasgly been a sore spot for the anizatn over the last year, followg the dismissal of a n lear bee she is a lbian and the nial of the Eagle Sut rank to a California teen bee he is gay.

HOW THE BOY SUTS CHANGED THEIR STANCE ON GAY LEARS

Tristam HarrgtonWhen the BSA announced late January that may dch the natnal policy and stead let lol sponsorg anizatns ci if gays n jo, the anizatn received a flood of rpons om both sis. The Boy Suts have asked for the surveys to be returned by April BSA also asked if the currently policy was a “re value” of Sutg and if rponnts would leave the BSA if a cisn was ma that disagreed wh their qutns on the survey clu:A gay male troop lear, along wh another adult lear, is takg a group of boys on a mpg trip followg the youth protectn guil of two-ep learship. Is acceptable or unacceptable for the gay adult lear to take adolcent boys on an overnight mpg trip?

A troop is chartered by an anizatn that do not believe homosexualy is wrong and allows gays to be misters. Johnny’s pack is chartered to a church where the doctre of that fah do not teach that homosexualy is wrong. His troop is chartered to a church where the doctre of that fah also teach that homosexualy is wrong.

BOY SUTS TO ANNOUNCE END OF BAN ON GAY LEARS

Related stori: Boy Suts: We need more time for cisn on gay SutsAfter years of heartache, gay Suts and supporters react warily over proposal to lift ban'Gravely distrsed': Relign looms large over Boy Suts cisn on gays 'BATTLESTATIONS! Bob Cadwallar is sutmaster of Troop 822 suburban CADWALLADER, Troop 822 Sutmaster: To me, personally, homosexualy is not natural, and I do not want tght or prented to my children as natural.

For New York Cy's Troop 729, the Boy Suts' posn on homosexualy has created an agonizg nflict between their valu and their loyalty to the HANSEN NELSON, Troop 729, Assistant Sutmaster: Inially, I wanted out; I wanted to rign prott, you know. Officials at the natnal headquarters of the Boy Suts of Ameri cled to ment about fundraisg or their posn on homosexuals, but they have posted their ratnale for the policy on their Web se: "An avowed homosexual is not a role mol for the tradnal moral valu poed the Sut Oath and Law and homosexual nduct is nsistent wh the valu we wish to still.

BOY SUTS OF AMERI ENDS BAN ON GAY SUT LEARS

They were very trated wh the fact that so much of what Boy Suts stands for was kd of phed out of the way bee of, you know, a uple of people thk that homosexualy is a s. Two of my sons and one of the other boys the troop have had homosexual men make pass, if you will. He c numero studi which have nclud that gay men are not more likely than straight men to sexually abe young boys.

It hurts kids, hurts gay kids, who, like, they don't have a tough enough time already this untry growg up? What changed is the more open, nontatnal challenge that was prented to the Boy Suts after 1970, the rise of the homosexual rights movement, the rise of the more radil separatn of church and state movement. But John Oldham, at the Psychiatric Instute, says 's many people's beliefs about homosexualy that are out of date.

BOY SUTS OF AMERI LIFTS BAN ON GAY LEARS

Inherently attached to this issue is a very strong array of fears and anxieti, many of which may even be fairly unrstandable bee they rive om a perd when there were wily held beliefs about homosexualy that we now no longer subscribe to. Oldham not that when he began trag psychiatry as a young man, homosexualy was viewed as a type of diagnosable disorr.

It's a very different terpretatn of homosexualy om the one held by the lears of troop 822 Maryland. But if at some pot a lear said, "well, you know, I'm gay and 's a good liftyle, " I want him out, I want him gone. I wonred what he would say if someone on his Eagle board of review, his fal hurdle, asked him whether he would follow the Boy Sut's policy excludg gays.