Boy
Scouts committee approves allowing gay adults as leaders
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[July 14, 2015]
By Marice Richter
DALLAS (Reuters) - The Boy Scouts of
America Executive Committee unanimously approved allowing gay adults to
serve as leaders, officials said on Monday, in a major step toward
dismantling a policy that has caused deep rifts in the 105-year-old
organization.
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The group's National Executive Board will meet to ratify the
resolution on July 27, the Boy Scouts said in a statement.
"This resolution will allow chartered organizations to select adult
leaders without regard to sexual orientation, continuing Scouting’s
longstanding policy of chartered organizations selecting their
leaders," it said.
The resolution approved by the Executive Committee on Friday follows
a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June to allow same-sex marriage
nationwide and a call in May from the Boy Scouts president, former
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said the ban on gay
leadership needed to change.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Jul/14/images/ads/current/stacy_sda_121014.png) The Boy Scouts said in the statement the move reflected "the rapid
changes in society and increasing legal challenges at the federal,
state and local levels."
The announcement was welcomed by an activist seeking an end to the
long-standing policy.
"The Boy Scouts of America’s ban on gay adults has stood as a
towering example of explicit, institutional homophobia in one of
America’s most important and recognizable civic organizations," said
Zach Wahls, an eagle scout and executive director of Scouts for
Equality.
The Irving, Texas-based organization lifted its ban on gay youth in
2013 but continues to prohibit the participation of openly gay
adults. The selection last year of Gates as president of the Boy
Scouts was seen as an opportunity to revisit the policy.
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Gates, as secretary of defense, helped end the "Don't Ask, Don't
Tell" policy that barred openly gay individuals from serving in the
military.
Earlier, corporate sponsors such as Lockheed Martin and Intel
dropped funding from the Boy Scouts in protest of policies
considered discriminatory.
The Boy Scouts ban on gay adults received its first major challenge
in April when the first openly gay adult was hired as a summer camp
leader by the Greater New York Council of Boy Scouts.
Membership in the Boy Scouts of America has been steadily declining
during the past decade, but the 2013 decision to allow gay youth
contributed to a steeper drop of 7.4 percent from 2013 to 2014,
according to organization figures.
(Reporting by Marice Richter; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by
Mohammad Zargham and Peter Cooney)
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