July 14, 2015
The Boy Scouts of America’s National Executive Board will vote in a July 27 meeting on a motion to remove the institution’s ban on gay leadership which was unanimously passed by the organization’s National Executive Committee, reports ChristianHeadlines.com. If passed as expected the change will go into effect immediately.
The private youth organization has rules which bar atheists, agnostics, and, until January of 2014, banned all known homosexuals from membership. The prohibition on openly homosexual adults has remained in place, but BSA National President Robert Gates stated in May that he feared the pressures of modern society and its increasing legal challenges were making the ban untenable.
Under the proposed change individual troops would be able, or so said for the time being, to “choose adult leaders whose beliefs are consistent with their own,” whether gay or straight. While some are welcoming the impending change, others, such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who launched his presidential campaign on Monday, have noted that the traditional policy "protected children and advanced Scout values.”
However the vote turns, Boy Scout members are still discouragement from engagement in sexual conduct of any kind, whether heterosexual or homosexual.
