Boy Scouts of America are turning more inclusive with time. Here's what they'll be called now
Firms, government institutions, and other organizations have accepted the need for inclusivity, and age-old entities are also changing policies to embrace the future. The latest among them is Boy Scouts of America, which has decided to rebrand itself as Scouting America to adopt a more inclusive image, as reported by PEOPLE. Over the years, the organization has made moves to ensure that it becomes a space welcoming of all groups. Five years ago girls were accepted into the group and since then more than 176,000 girls and young women have been enrolled in BSA programs. The girls have been excellent as scouts, with more than 6000 of them having achieved the rank of Eagle Scout.
“In the next 100 years we want any youth in America to feel very, very welcome to come into our programs,” Roger Krone, who took over last fall as president and chief executive officer of Scouting America, told The Associated Press in an interview before the announcement. But the move to accept girls created conflicts with the Girl Scouts of the USA, who filed a lawsuit alleging marketplace confusion and damage to recruitment efforts, before it was settled out of court.
The organization wants this step to showcase its commitment to diversity. In 2013 the organization began accepting gay youth and also had queer leaders in its ranks since 2015, as per the Associated Press. Before 2015, there was a blanket ban on gay adult leaders in the scout camps. Despite the policy being passed by the BSA’s National Executive Board on a 45-12 vote, the body did allow church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons. “For far too long this issue has divided and distracted us,” said the BSA’s president, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. “Now it’s time to unite behind our shared belief in the extraordinary power of Scouting to be a force for good.”
The decision was not greeted by widespread agreement by many religious institutions, which believe that the admission of queer individuals goes against their beliefs. But, bodies like the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT-rights organization, believed that it was high time to make the change. “Discrimination should have no place in the Boy Scouts, period,” said the HRC’s president, Chad Griffin. “BSA officials should now demonstrate true leadership and begin the process of considering a full national policy of inclusion.” Scouting America hoped that the decision would not only be a massive step forward for inclusivity but also boost their membership.
Two years later girls were welcomed into the fold, and in the same year, the organization announced that soon they were going to make way for transgender children. The Boy Scouts of America was established in 1910 with the basic aim of "preparing young people to make ethical and moral choices throughout their lives by instilling the timeless values of the Scout Oath and Law,” and now has more than 1 million children. Prior to the name change, the organization underwent another bout of rebranding to reflect its inclusivity, when it adopted the name Scouts BSA in 2019. The prestigious organization has given tutelage to members like eventual presidents such as Bill Clinton and Gerald Ford, astronauts such as Buzz Aldrin, and celebrities including Harrison Ford and filmmaker Steven Spielberg.