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HOUSTON—One of the nation’s largest Boy Scouts of America councils voted against the resolution proposing changes in the national membership standards that would allow openly homosexual boys and teens to join the organization. The vote reflected overwhelming opposition to the resolution as quantified in polling data produced by the Sam Houston Area Council (SHAC) showing 75 percent of respondents favor the current standard.
Despite the vote by the SHAC, which represents 50,000 Scouts and 20,000 volunteers over a 16-county area, they will be bound by a national vote on May 23 during the national BSA’s annual business meeting at Grapevine’s Gaylord Texan Hotel and Convention Center.
Rodney Eads, SHAC board chairman, said the proposed national membership policy would allow openly homosexual youth to join Scouts while continuing to bar avowed homosexual adults from leadership positions.
The SHAC votes are only 12 of 1,400 that will be counted when delegates from across the nation convene and address the contentious proposal. That the organization is still having the discussion frustrates Scout advocates who believe the 2000 Supreme Court decision maintaining the BSA’s constitutional right to set its own membership guidelines settled the issue. Despite that decision, the 103-year-old organization’s standards that bar from membership and leadership openly homosexual boys and adults have faced a ground swell of discontent from within its ranks.
Opposition to the existing policy has come from the ground up, especially from the more liberal areas of the country, Scout representatives said. SHAC spokeswoman Lynda Sanders said calls from those challenging the policy found sympathetic ears on the BSA National Executive Board.
Last year and again in February it became public that the executive board was addressing membership policy changes. The ensuing public campaign from those on both sides of the debate overwhelmed the national offices. Last year the board voted to maintain current standards. But in February they voted to table the issue and continue the discussion internally and via a poll of the organization’s parents and leadership.
Sanders said she believes the current membership resolution is a summation of that polling.
“There are different sentiments all over the country,” Sanders said.
The opinions of Scouts and their leadership on the West and East coasts vary dramatically from those in Houston and the traditionally more conservative South and even the Midwest. But Sanders said some Scout representatives have complained the current membership policy hurts local membership and fundraising efforts in more liberal regions of the country.
In a press release prefacing the policy change proposal, the BSA stated: “While perspectives and opinions vary significantly, parents, adults in the Scouting community, and teens alike tend to agree that youth should not be denied the benefits of Scouting.”
Polling conducted by the Sam Houston Area Council revealed 75 percent of the parents and leaders oppose any change to the current policy. The national BSA poll came to the same conclusion for this region.
“The resolution also reinforces that Scouting is a youth program and any sexual conduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting,” the statement read.
Critics of any policy change contend the new standard gives tacit approval to homosexuality. Those fighting the status quo say the proposal sends a mixed message: It’s acceptable to be a homosexual Scout, at least until you turn 18 and become eligible to be an adult leader.
In advance of the national vote, area BSA councils across the country will host voter education meetings through May 15. Local councils will vote on the resolution and elect delegates to carry those votes to the May 23 national meeting. The number of delegates is proportionate to the membership of each council.
