Gay Rights, Boy Scouts Of America | featured news

Top officials of the Boy Scouts of America unanimously recommend allowing gay boys into the ranks of the organization but excluding gay adults as leaders. Top officials of the Boy Scouts of America have unanimously recommended allowing gay boys into the ranks of one of the nation's oldest and most traditional youth groups while continuing to exclude homosexual adults as leaders.

Officials of the Boy Scouts of America said Friday that they propose ending their ban on openly gay scouts but continuing to bar gay adults from serving as leaders. The decision, which follows years of heated controversy within the organization and growing outside criticism, must be approved by the roughly 1,400 voting members of the Scouts’ National Council at a meeting in Texas the week of May 20.

The Boy Scouts of America put off a decision Wednesday on whether to lift its ban on gay members and leaders, saying the question will be taken up at the organization's national meeting in May.

As early as next week, the Boy Scouts of America may announce it will allow gay Scouts and troop leaders, a spokesman for the group has told USA TODAY. If this policy shift is approved by the national board meeting next week, it will be a sharp reversal of the Scouts' decades' old national policy banning homosexuals.

Boy Scouts of America is discussing ending a longstanding ban on gay members and whether to allow local organizations to decide their own policy, a spokesman said on Monday.

President Barack Obama opposes a controversial Boy Scouts' policy banning gay Scouts and leaders, the White House said Wednesday. White House spokesman Shin Inouye said in a statement that Obama believes the Boy Scouts of America has helped to educate and build character in boys. “He also opposes discrimination in all forms, and as such opposes this policy that discriminates on basis of sexual orientation,” according to the statement, which was first reported by the Washington Blade.