You’d think so. According to various sources — e.g., Fox News and Buzzfeed, where I first saw it last night (via a facebook link), the Boy Scout’s executive committee has OK’d a new policy that allows each local unit to define for themselves the term “morally straight” and set qualifications for leaders based on policies of the chartering organization. This now goes to the executive board on July 27th, and is expected to be rubber stamped by them. This regularizes the currently “irregular” situation of local councils/troops disregarding the official national policy prohibiting openly gay men from serving as leaders.
There’s no indication of what happens with respect to leadership positions at the council level, or such jobs as instructor/counselor at Scout camp, but one presumes that these open up as well.
Is it over, then? Will we see a sorting-out, as the troops at local churches which currently have a big rainbow flag on their signs attract one type of family and others who are uncomfortable with this make their way to Catholic Church-sponsored troops, even if they’re not Catholic?
And will the anti-Scout folks, such as the California judges who declared that no judge may be involved in Scouting as a discriminatory organization, hold their fire?
I suppose the first contested territory will be those non-religious organizations which sponsor troops, such as the Rotary; I expect that they’ll be pressured to declare a nationwide policy of nondiscrimination. This would presumably also hold true for various denominations which are themselves at a crossroads in terms of their doctrine on homosexuality. (What will ELCA do, for instance?) The next step will be for those troops which are sponsored by non-gay-friendly religious organizations to be shunned in one way or another, and for donors to demand they be excluded from receiving benefits from their donation.
Already the advocacy group Human Rights Campaign has called this policy a “half step” and has responded “by calling on the organization to also require that all troops adhere to a policy of full LGBT inclusion.”
What’s more,
In 2013, HRC announced that its Corporate Equality Index, which rates Fortune 500 companies and the nation’s top law firms on LGBT-inclusive policies and practices, would penalize corporations that give money to organizations that discriminate against the LGBT community. Companies from Walt Disney to UPS have led the charge to prevent money from flowing from corporate coffers to organizations that actively discriminate against the LGBT community.
And this index matters to companies — they move in lock-step with its demands.
So the battle’s not over.
Originally posted July 14; UPDATE:
The new policy is official:
On Monday, July 27, the National Executive Board ratified a resolution that removes the national restriction on openly gay adult leaders and employees. Of those present and voting, 79 percent voted in favor of the resolution. The resolution was recommended for ratification by the Executive Committee earlier this month. The resolution is effective immediately.
Chartered organizations will continue to select their adult leaders and religious chartered organizations may continue to use religious beliefs as criteria for selecting adult leaders, including matters of sexuality. This change allows Scouting’s members and parents to select local units, chartered to organizations with similar beliefs, that best meet the needs of their families. This change also respects the right of religious chartered organizations to choose adult volunteer leaders whose beliefs are consistent with their own.
In other words, only religious chartering organizations retain the right to be selective in this respect. And, as expected, this is not acceptable for the HRC, according to the Wall Street Journal:
Some gay-rights groups believe the exception for religious organizations serves as a license to continue discriminating.
“Including an exemption for troops sponsored by religious organizations undermines and diminishes the historic nature of today’s decision,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay and lesbian civil-rights organization. “Discrimination should have no place in the Boy Scouts, period.”
Given the battle on multiple fronts against religious exemptions, I’d place greater than even odds on the HRC winning the day. Already the Mormons are looking at exiting and creating their own program for boys (they already have a replacement program for girls, called “Young Womanhood”), and many evangelicals are moving toward the upstart Trail Life. If Catholics are the only ones left as objectors to gay leaders, is this sustainable?
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In