Boy Scouts Reaffirm Membership Policy

Special Report - July 20, 2012
This week, the Boy Scouts of America reaffirmed its long-standing policy of prohibiting membership “to open or avowed homosexuals,” as in the “best interest of Scouting.” The Boy Scouts made the announcement in a July 17 statement that follows a two-year evaluation of the membership standards policy by volunteers and Boy Scouts leaders. The evaluation was commissioned in 2010 in response to a resolution asking the Boy Scouts to reconsider its membership standards policy, which states: “While the BSA does not proactively inquire about the sexual orientation of employees, volunteers, or members, we do not grant membership to individuals who are open or avowed homosexuals or who engage in behavior that would become a distraction to the mission of the BSA.”

On its website, the Boy Scouts further explains the policy, noting that, “Scouting believes same-sex attraction should be introduced and discussed outside of its program with parents, caregivers, or spiritual advisers, at the appropriate time and in the right setting. The vast majority of parents we serve value this right and do not sign their children up for Scouting for it to introduce or discuss, in any way, these topics.”

Homosexual advocacy groups and their allies have been pressuring the Boy Scouts to open its membership to openly homosexual individuals for years, including filing a lawsuit challenging the policy in the 1990s. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Boy Scouts’ constitutional right to pick and choose its own members because it determined that forcing the Scouts to accept homosexual members “would significantly burden the organization’s right to oppose or disfavor homosexual conduct.”

“Scouting believes that good people can personally disagree on this topic and still work together to achieve the life-changing benefits to youth through Scouting,” Bob Mazzuca, Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America, said in the July 17 statement reaffirming the policy. “While not all Board members may personally agree with this policy, and may choose a different direction for their own organizations, BSA leadership agrees this is the best policy for the organization and supports it for the BSA.”

Related resources:
Emerging Threats to Conscience - May 16, 2011
Connecting the Dots of the Homosexual Agenda - FNC - May/June, 2009
DOD to Drop Boy Scout Troop Sponsorships - November 18, 2004

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