The large groups are, for the most part, non-intrusive. Gay Days organizers designate a different Walt Disney World theme park to visit on each of four days. In the 1970s, about a third of its Scouts decamped after a switch in emphasis from outdoors skills to skills such as family finances. The event is simply a way for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) individuals, along with their families and friends, to show support for one another and their community. At times, changes in Scouting tradition have cost the group dearly. The Boy Scouts is now being pulled from two directions: growing support for gay rights around the country, and a conservative, religious base that threatens to leave the organization if it joins that larger movement. The two groups diverged early when the Boy Scouts aligned with religious organizations. The group is rooted in conservative concepts of traditional manliness and patriotism the Girl Scouts, an entirely separate organization, was founded on the philosophy that although girls should learn homemaking skills, they also should engage in the nontraditional pursuits of athletics and outdoors activities. Why is the Boy Scouts so locked in the past? That’s a more complicated question than it might seem. The Girl Scouts also became racially integrated much earlier than the Boy Scouts, and had little problem accepting atheist members. That’s in line with the organization’s history. (The new policy is expected to be ratified by the executive board July 27.) Some of those troops already have shown interest in welcoming all interested and qualified adults, regardless of sexual orientation many others are expected to keep a ban in place.Ĭompare that with the way the Girl Scouts recently made news: A Scouting council in western Washington rejected a $100,000 donation that came with the stipulation that it not be used to support transgender Scouts. But rather than banning such discrimination entirely, it leaves the decision up to individual troops and units. The resolution approved last week by the Scouts’ national executive committee puts an end to the organization’s official ban on gay Scout leaders and volunteers. that are reluctant to sponsor an organization that discriminates against gay people. This wasn’t the leap of an organization that now views sexual orientation with more tolerant eyes, but rather a shuffling step by a tradition-bound group that has been prodded by dramatic changes in societal views of sexual orientation, as well as the financial realities of needing to woo back corporate donors such as Walt Disney Co.
The Boy Scouts of America didn’t go as far as it ought to have with its new recommendation on gay Scout leaders, but it did make reluctant headway.