The Boy Suts and Their Policy Agast Gay Lears | 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 CHANGE POLICY ON GAY LEARS
• BOY SUTS OF AMERI ENDS BAN ON GAY ADULT LEARS
• BOY SUTS OF AMERI LIFTS BAN ON GAY ADULT LEARS
• CAN A GAY BOY SUT SHARE A TENT WH ANOTHER BOY? BOY SUTS SURVEY MEMBERS ON ANTI-GAY POLICY
• GAY BOY SUTS? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR BOYS?
• BOY SUTS: YOU N BE GAY UNTIL YOU TURN 18
• BOY SUTS OF AMERI ENDS BAN ON GAY SUT LEARS
• THE BOY SUTS ARE VOTG ON GAY LEARS—HERE'S HOW YOU CAN HELP
• WHAT DROPPG THE BAN ON GAY LEARS MEANS FOR THE BOY SUTS
• BOY SUTS OF AMERI LIFTS BAN ON GAY LEARS
• WHY CAN'T BOY SUT LEARS BE GAY?
• THE BOY SUTS AND THEIR POLICY AGAST 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.

BOY SUTS TO REPEAL BAN ON GAY LEARS, WH LIMATNS

"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.

"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.

BOY SUTS CHANGE POLICY ON GAY LEARS

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. “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.

BOY SUTS OF AMERI ENDS BAN ON GAY ADULT 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.

BOY SUTS OF AMERI LIFTS BAN ON GAY ADULT LEARS

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.

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

“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.

GAY BOY SUTS? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR BOYS?

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.

BOY SUTS: YOU N BE GAY UNTIL YOU TURN 18

"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.

BOY SUTS OF AMERI ENDS BAN ON GAY SUT LEARS

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. The Boy Suts of Ameri has announced that s natnal executive board has voted to lift the anizatn's ban on openly gay and bisexual adult lears and employe, effective a 45-12 vote, the 71-member board adopted a rolutn (12 pag, PDF) that s executive mtee, a unanimo vote earlier this month, remend for ratifitn. The new policy do not require dividual uns to allow gay adult lears; stead, chartered BSA uns, cludg those sponsored by church, will be allowed to select adult lears based on their own creria, cludg sexual orientatn.

""While we still have some rervatns about dividual uns discrimatg agast gay adults, we uldn’t be more exced about the future of Sutg, " said Suts for Equaly executive director Zach Wahls. "[T]he 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. " Some nservative evangelil church end ti wh BSA after s 2013 cisn to adm openly gay youths as members.

THE BOY SUTS ARE VOTG ON GAY LEARS—HERE'S HOW YOU CAN HELP

But the summer of 1990, Dale received a letter rmg him that his membership had been revoked, simply bee he was gay. Dpe Dale’s 12-year relatnship wh the Boy Suts, the anizatn severed their ti wh him after learng of a news article that intified him as the -print of his universy’s Lbian/Gay Alliance.

In a 5-4 cisn, the Supreme Court narrowly affirmed the Boy Suts right to ny membership to openly gay dividuals.

On July 27, a full 25 years after they revoked Dale’s membership, the anizatn announced would extend membership to openly gay lears.

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

The cisn was an important step, but bee left the ban place for openly gay lears, was an unsatisfyg one.

BOY SUTS OF AMERI LIFTS BAN ON GAY LEARS

More troublgly, though, the hatn also perpetuated the historic and homophobic perceptn of gay adults as promiscuo dividuals wh nefar tentns. Although is now possible for gay lears to serve openly the Boys Suts of Ameri, dog so is still jt that: a possibily, not a guarantee. The Boy Suts has lifted s ban on openly gay lears and employe, but has allowed relig chartered anizatns, which operate more than 70 percent of the Boy Suts Sutg uns, “to e relig beliefs as creria for selectg adult lears, cludg matters of sexualy, ” acrdg to their announcement.

WHY CAN'T BOY SUT LEARS BE GAY?

” 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. 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.

THE BOY SUTS AND THEIR POLICY AGAST 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.

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.