Will the Boy Scouts Reverse Its Anti-Gay Policy?

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He Was Influential In Ending DADT. Now, Robert Gates Will Lead The Boy Scouts, With Its History Of Gay Rights Issues.

The Huffington Post | By Chris Gentilviso Posted: 10/30/2013 3:35 pm EDT | Updated: 10/30/2013 5:33 pm EDT



More than two years after playing an influential role in the Obama administration's repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is taking on another role that may present its share of questions on gay rights.

The Boy Scouts of America announced Wednesday that Gates has been named president-elect of the organization. According to the Boy Scouts press release, Gates' appointment must be approved by voting members of the organization's National Council, and if the vote is successful, his term will last for two years.

Gates, who stands as a distinguished Eagle Scout and previously served as head of the National Eagle Scout Association, said he was honored to have the opportunity to serve in this capacity.

"There is no finer program for preparing American boys for citizenship and leadership than the Boy Scouts of America," Gates said in a statement. "As an Eagle Scout, I know firsthand how impactful this program can be and I believe its mission is more important today than ever before. I am honored to take on this role and look forward to working on behalf of the millions of youth and adult members who make Scouting what it is today—an organization providing life-changing opportunities to today's youth."

Gates served as U.S. Secretary of Defense from Dec. 2006 through July 2011, maintaining the post through segments of both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. That marked the first time in history that a Defense Secretary held their post through the election of a new president.

During the Obama era of his service, Gates led the Defense Department through the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" transition. Congress voted in Dec. 2010 for repeal of the ban on gays openly serving in the military, and by June 2011, Gates made it clear that there would be no opt out for Marines against the government decision.

"The reality is that you don't all agree with each other on your politics, you don't agree with each other on your religion, you don't agree with each other on a lot of things," he added. "But you still serve together. And you work together. And you look out for each other. And that's all that matters."

On a similar front, the Boy Scouts voted back in May to approve a resolution removing any ban on members based on sexual orientation alone. The policy change is slated to take effect on Jan. 1, 2014.

"The Boy Scouts of America will not sacrifice its mission, or the youth served by the movement, by allowing the organization to be consumed by a single, divisive, and unresolved societal issue," the organization wrote in a statement. "As the National Executive Committee just completed a lengthy review process, there are no plans for further review on this matter.

The change was not welcomed by all with open arms. Among those against the move was Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who said he was "greatly disappointed with this decision."

"The Boy Scouts of America has been built upon the values of faith and family for more than 100 years," Perry said in a statement. "And today’s decision contradicts generations of tradition in the name of political correctness.

[American Patriot]

Gates was elected by whom? Not ME that's for damned sure.

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Boy Scouts' New York Chapter Challenges Ban On Gay Adults By Hiring Eagle Scout Pascal Tessier As Camp Counselor



In an unprecedented move, the Boy Scouts of America's New York chapter has hired an openly gay Eagle Scout as a summer camp leader.

The decision to hire Pascal Tessier, an 18-year-old Eagle Scout from Maryland, as a counselor at the Ten Mile River Scout Camp in upstate New York is a direct challenge to the Boy Scouts' existing ban on openly gay adult participants, the Associated Press is reporting.

Board member Richard G. Mason praised Tessier, who has been an outspoken advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues, as an "exemplary candidate" for the counselor role, and said New York members "did not want our policy of non-discrimination to be affected by the national policy" in an email statement sent to The Huffington Post.

"New York City and New York State law clearly prohibit employers from excluding qualified men and women from employment based on sexual orientation," he noted, and said he and other board members welcomed Tessier and "look forward to his participation in our camp program."

Among those to applaud the move was Scouts for Equality's Executive Director Zach Wahls, who called Tessier's hiring "a watershed moment."

"As the controversy swirling in Indiana, Arkansas, and elsewhere demonstrates, Americans are no longer willing to tolerate discrimination based on sexual orientation," Wahls said in a statement. "We are proud to see such an important Boy Scout council standing up for the full inclusion of gay members and affirming that the values and principles of scouting are important to all people regardless of sexual orientation or age."

Echoing those sentiments was Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin, who called it "a historic day for the Boy Scouts of America -- and for the courageous and talented young man, Pascal Tessier, who seeks only to work for the organization that he loves."

It isn't the first time that Tessier has made history. In 2014, he became the first out Eagle Scout to be approved after the Boy Scouts lifted its ban on gay youth participants.

"Even if I had been kicked out along the way, I wouldn't have changed anything," he told the AP at the time. "The whole experience was something worth having, not only for myself but also for all the other people involved -- and for all the people it affects."

If his hiring is challenged at the national level, however, Tessier is already represented by lawyer David Boies, BuzzFeed reported. Boies told reporter Chris Geidner that the formal BSA policy is "obviously against the law in a number of states, including New York."

"While I don’t want to be overly optimistic, I think this signals at least the end of this type of discrimination on a national level," he is quoted as saying.

[Ryan Ruck]

Boy Scouts’ President Calls for End to Ban on Gay Leaders

May 21, 2015

Robert M. Gates, the president of the Boy Scouts of America and former secretary of defense, called on Thursday to end the Scouts’ ban on gay adult leaders, warning the group’s executives that “we must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be.”

Speaking at the Boy Scouts’ annual national meeting in Atlanta, Mr. Gates said cascading events — including potential employment discrimination lawsuits and the impending Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, as well as mounting internal dissent over the exclusionary policy — had led him to conclude that the current rules “cannot be sustained.”

If the Boy Scouts do not change on their own, he said, the courts are likely to force them to, and “we must all understand that this will probably happen sooner rather than later.”

In a nod to the religious organizations that sponsor a majority of local Scout troops, he said they should remain free to set their own guidelines for leaders. “I support a policy that accepts and respects our different perspectives and beliefs,” he said, adding, “I truly fear that any other alternative will be the end of us as a national movement.”

In his speech, Mr. Gates, who is also a former director of the C.I.A., evoked his experience as defense secretary. In that role, he helped end the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy — which was similar to the current Boy Scouts policy toward Scout leaders — and discrimination against gay men and lesbians.

He recalled that in 2010, a federal judge declared the military policy to be illegal. “Only a stay granted by the appeals court — granted, I believe, mainly because we were in the process of changing the law — prevented dramatic disruption in the armed forces,” he said Thursday.

“If we wait for the courts to act,” he continued, “we could end up with a broad ruling that could forbid any kind of membership standard,” such as the belief in a duty to God and the goal of specifically serving the needs of boys.

Mr. Gates took on the job as president in May of last year, for a two-year term. He said he had originally intended to put off consideration of the divisive issue of gay adults, allowing the Boy Scouts a respite after a contentious meeting in 2013 at which the organization decided to permit openly gay youths to belong to it.

He said that he had not yet made a formal proposal to the national board, but that it must act soon to head off possible disaster.

Though his position is voluntary, Mr. Gates, an Eagle Scout, wields enormous power in the Boy Scouts, which have been struggling to stem a shrinking membership for decades.

The treatment of gay men and boys has been a source of wrenching debate. Conservative religious groups that sponsor many Scout troops, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Roman Catholic Church and some evangelical churches, opposed the participation of openly gay members, while local leaders in more liberal regions have called for an end to discrimination.

In 2013, Boy Scout leaders from across the country voted, with more than 60 percent approval, to say that no youth may be denied membership “on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.” But it left intact the even more disputed policy that no openly gay adults could serve in the organization.

Since then, a Scout group in New York has defied the rules by employing an openly gay 18-year-old as a camp counselor, and several other councils around the country have expressed opposition to the ban.

Mr. Gates said Thursday, in prepared remarks released by the Boy Scouts, that the national leadership would take no action against defiant local councils.

At the same time, he said that in the name of religious freedom, the Scouts should allow local sponsoring organizations “to determine the standards for their Scout leaders.”

“Such an approach would allow all churches, which sponsor some 70 percent of our Scout units, to establish leadership standards consistent with their faith,” he said. “We must, at all costs, preserve the religious freedom of our church partners to do this.”

The Mormon Church uses the Boy Scouts as its main organization for boys and is by far the largest sponsor of Scout troops, overseeing more than 437,000 youths as of 2013, of a national total of 2.6 million youths participating in the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Explorer Scouts and other programs.

The church issued a guarded statement Thursday: “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will, of course, examine any such changes very carefully to assess how they might impact our own century-long association with the B.S.A.” If the Scouts’ executive board adopts the policy Mr. Gates has recommended, letting local groups set their own leadership rules, the church is not likely to be affected.

Religious conservatives, who had already condemned the Boy Scouts for the decision to admit openly gay boys, were strongly critical of Mr. Gates’s plan.

John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council, a conservative Christian group, said: “I think it’s a sad thing. I think that many families and boys will be negatively affected by the Boy Scouts’ departure from their longstanding principles.”

Mr. Stemberger is chairman of a Christian youth group, Trail Life USA, that was formed as an alternative to the Boy Scouts after the 2013 shift.

Zach Wahls, executive director of Scouts for Equality, a group that has campaigned for change, called Mr. Gates’s proposal “undeniably a step forward.”

“It seems like the Boy Scouts will continue an internal dialogue about the subject,” he said, adding that a relaxing of the national ban seemed all but certain. The executive board could mandate such a change at any time in the coming year, he said, or it could decide, as it did in 2013, to put the matter up for a vote at next year’s annual convention of scout leaders from around the country.

Sarah Kate Ellis, president of GLAAD, a gay rights organization, also praised Mr. Gates’s comments but expressed concern about the potential for further discrimination.

“There is much more left to be done until full equality prevails in Scouting,” she said in a statement, “but recognizing how out of step the ban is with basic fairness is a good first step.”

Mr. Gates said Thursday: “I am not asking the national board for any action to change our current policy at this meeting. But I must speak as plainly and bluntly to you as I spoke to presidents when I was director of C.I.A. and secretary of defense.

“We must deal with the world as it is,” he said, “not as we might wish it to be.”

[Ryan Ruck]

Boy Scouts Committee Approves Allowing Gay Adults As Leaders

July 13, 2015


Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts prepare to lead marchers while waving flags at the 41st annual Pride Parade on June 28 in Seattle.

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.

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.

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.

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.