Boy Scouts End Ban On Gay Scouts, Not Leaders, Amid Criticisms Of Vote

The Boy Scouts of America voted Thursday to lift its age-old policy of banning gay boys from being involved in the organization. However, the BSA will continue to disallow openly gay adult leaders from being active in their troops or crews.

A vote of 1,400 of its national members revealed that 61 percent of those voting supported lifting the ban on homosexual scouts. 757 of those present at the BSA National Council voted in favor of changing the policy of the 103-year-old organization, while 475 voted otherwise, and 168 of the delegates were not present, according to NBC News.

"This has been a challenging chapter in our history," said BSA Chief Scout Executive Wayne Brock, "This [change] is not about what's legal; but what's compassionate, caring and kind, Brock said.

Indeed, debate over the change induced messages of support and criticism from all factions with a vested interest in the BSA's policy. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints backed the change in policy, saying in a statement that it was willing to "work with the BSA to harmonize what Scouting has to offer with the varying needs of our young men." The Mormon Church reportedly has the highest number of sponsored troops of any religion.

The United Church of Christ, as well as the Episcopal Church reportedly welcomed the change. The Catholic Church reportedly "has no official position" according to ABC News. Additionally, the gay-rights organization GLAAD, which has lobbied for the change called the move a "huge victory" but said it would still "keep up the pressure" until the gay-leader clause was similarly amended.

The Southern Baptist Convention protested the change in the policy banning gay scouts from participation in the Boy Scouts of America: "We are deeply saddened. Homosexual behavior is incompatible with the principles enshrined in the Scout Oath and Scout Law," said convention official Frank Page.

Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, earlier this month; prior to the vote, echoed that sentiment saying that the Boy Scouts must not bend to the wants of "pop culture", referring to the gays-in-scouting debate as a "flavor of the month" issue. "The fact is, this is a private organization. Their values and principles have worked for a century now," he said. Perry, an Eagle Scout himself, also wrote a book in 2008 entitled: "On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For", which covered his position to uphold the ban.

Onmyhonor.net, a website opposed to the change, listed ten points of contention with altering the current BSA regulations. The site listed a number of figures that reportedly showed that a majority of many interested factions similarly opposed the change, writing that over 60 percent of both unit leaders and Boy Scout parents reportedly opposed allowing gay boys in the scouting program.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum weighed in as well, a number of weeks prior to the vote, saying he was "saddened, but no surprised" that discussion of the change was occurring earlier in February. He called what became the eventual outcome an "abandon[ment of] the organization's founding moral principles that nurture boys into men." At that time, he wrote an opinion editorial recounting his view of the debate at hand.

Citing that American drug company Merck as well as UPS would reportedly drop their funding of the Boy Scouts of America if the ban was not lifted, he implored in a column that those involved in that way would read the Scout Law before making a decision. "It is filled with words that have long left the poular lexicon when applied to young men," Santorum wrote, saying the companies would likely want their employees to embody those values: "trustworthy, loyal, courteous, thrifty...and reverent. Yes the Boy Scouts are not of popular culture. Hey haven't transformed themselves to keep up with what is cool or trending, so in the...liberal mind, they must be forced to conform." Santorum said.

Santorum later said that "Scouting may not survive this transformation of American society", allegedly brought on by several social-issue "liberal victories".

Santorum's fears were echoed by the conservative-values Family Research Council, which said through Senior Vice President Robert Schwarzwalder, that 'tremendous fallout' should be expected from the change in the gay scouter policy: "I think there will be a loss of hundreds of thousands of boys and parents," Schwarzwalder said.