Boy Suts of Ameri ends ban on gay adult lears - CBS News

Contents:

• BOY SUTS OF AMERI ENDS BAN ON GAY ADULT LEARS
• BOY SUTS PANEL ADOPTS ROLUTN TO ALLOW GAY SUT LEARS
• 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
• END OF BOY SUTS' BAN ON GAYS PROMPTS ELATN AND ALARM
• GAY BOY SUTS? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR BOYS?
• NEW BOY SUTS PRINT: GAY SUT LEARS ACCEPTABLE

BOY SUTS OF AMERI ENDS BAN ON GAY ADULT LEARS

The Boy Suts have voted to allow gay adults to serve as troop lears. Boy Suts vote to lift ban on gay sut lears.

BOY SUTS PANEL ADOPTS ROLUTN TO ALLOW GAY SUT 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. Boy Suts of Ameri to officially lift ban on gay sut lears.

"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. NY Boy Suts hire first openly gay Eagle Sut.

-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. Boy Suts print qutns ban on gay adults.

BOY SUTS OF AMERI VOT TO ALLOW GAY SUT LEARS

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. 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 executive mtee of the Boy Suts of Ameri has unanimoly adopted a rolutn that would allow gay adults to serve as Sut lears, endg a longstandg ban on gay lears the anizatn.

BOY SUTS TO REPEAL BAN ON GAY LEARS, WH LIMATNS

" The move months after Robert Gat, the print of the Boy Suts of Ameri, lled on the anizatn to reasss s ban on gay adults, sayg, "We mt al wh the world as is, not as we might wish to be. " He also told NPR "gays would be permted uns that want to have them, " but church that sponsor Sut uns would be allowed to exercise their relig eedom and ensure lears troops they sponsor, or uns that they sponsor, reflect the fah of the sponsorg stutn.

The BSA voted 2013 to allow gay members, but not sutmasters. 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.

BOY SUTS CHANGE POLICY ON GAY LEARS

"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.

But some church have been openly cril of the ban on gay sut lears. 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.

END OF BOY SUTS' BAN ON GAYS PROMPTS ELATN AND ALARM

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.

GAY BOY SUTS? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR BOYS?

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 announced Monday would lift s ban on gay lears. The Boy Suts of Ameri announced Monday that ’s liftg the ban on gay adults as Sut lears. “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.

NEW BOY SUTS PRINT: GAY SUT LEARS ACCEPTABLE

Boy Suts move closer to endg ban on 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.