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| Clockwise from left, Boy Scouts Eric Kusterer, Jacob Sorah, James Sorah, Micah Brownlee and Cub Scout John Sorah hold signs at the “Save Our Scouts” Prayer Vigil and Rally in front of the Boy Scouts of America National Headquarters in Irving, Texas, Wednesday, February 6, 2013. The Boy Scouts of America said Wednesday it needed more time before deciding whether to move away from its divisive policy of excluding gays as scouts or adult leaders. |
IRVING, Texas
(AP) -- Caught in an ideological crossfire, the Boy Scouts of America
is retreating until May from a decision about whether to ease its policy
of excluding gays. Whatever the organization eventually does, it's
likely to anger major constituencies and worsen schisms within Scouting.
The
delay, which the Scouts attributed to "the complexity of this issue,"
was announced Wednesday after closed-door deliberations by the BSA's
national executive board. Under consideration was a proposal to ease the
longstanding ban on gays by allowing sponsors of local troops to decide
for themselves on the membership of gay Scouts and adult leaders.
As
the board met over three days at a hotel near Dallas, it became clear
that the proposal would be unacceptable to large numbers of impassioned
Scouting families and advocacy groups on both the left and right.
The
iconic youth organization is now deeply entangled in the broader
cultural and political conflicts over such issues as same-sex marriage
and religious freedom. Tilting toward either side will probably alienate
the other, and a midway balancing act will be difficult.
Gay-rights
supporters contend that no Scout units anywhere should exclude gays,
and vowed to maintain pressure on the BSA's corporate donors to achieve
that goal. Some conservatives, including religious leaders whose
churches sponsor troops, warned of mass defections if the ban were even
partially eased. They urged supporters to flood headquarters with phone
calls.
"In the past two weeks, Scouting has
received an outpouring of feedback from the American public," said the
BSA's national spokesman, Deron Smith. "It reinforces how deeply people
care about Scouting and how passionate they are about the organization."
The
BSA "needs time for a more deliberate review of its membership policy,"
Smith added. He said the board would prepare a resolution to be voted
on by the 1,400 voting members of the BSA national council at a meeting
during the week of May 20 in Grapevine, Texas.
The
organization had announced last week that it was considering allowing
Scout troops to decide whether to allow gay membership, ensuring that
the executive board meeting would be in the national spotlight.
Learning that a decision would be deferred, gay-rights leaders assailed the BSA.
"Every
day that the Boy Scouts of America delay action is another day that
discrimination prevails," said Chad Griffin, president of the Human
Rights Campaign. "Young Americans, gay and straight, are hurt by the
inaction associated with today's news."
"A
Scout is supposed to be brave, and the Boy Scouts failed to be brave
today," said Jennifer Tyrrell, an Ohio mother ousted as a den leader of
her son's Cub Scout pack because she's a lesbian.
"They
failed us yet again," she told The Associated Press. "Putting this off
until May only ensures other gay kids and gay parents are discarded."
Tyrrell
was among several current and former Scouts and supporters who rallied
outside BSA national headquarters Monday and delivered petitions
opposing the policy.
Conservative leaders made clear they would keep pressure on the BSA ahead of the May meeting.
Tony
Perkins of the Family Research Council said his group would continue
warning the BSA "about the grave consequences that would result if they
were to compromise their moral standards in the face of threats from
corporate elites and homosexual activists."
About
70 percent of all Scout units are sponsored by religious denominations,
including many by conservative faiths that have supported the ban,
including the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention and
the Mormon church.
The delay was welcomed by
Southern Baptist leaders, some of whom had said they would urge their
churches to seek alternatives to the Boy Scouts if the ban were
eliminated.
In comments to the Baptist Press,
the denomination's official news agency, SBC President Fred Luter
suggested that "prayers of the righteous" played a role in the BSA
decision.
The National Catholic Committee on
Scouting said it would join in the BSA's consultations over the coming
months. Whatever the outcome, the committee said, "Catholic chartered
units will continue to provide leaders who promote and live Catholic
values."
Michael Purdy, a spokesman at the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints headquarters in Utah, said
the BSA "acted wisely in delaying its decision until all voices can be
heard on this important moral issue."
The
extra time will give local Scout leaders in Utah and elsewhere time to
determine how their members feel about the proposal, said Kay Godfrey, a
spokesman for Boy Scouts in the Great Salt Lake Council. The heavily
Mormon council is one of the largest in the country, with 5,500 troops
and 73,400 youth members.
"It's so important
and so historic in nature that serious deliberation over time, involving
a broad spectrum of folks, is needed," Godfrey said.
Outside
BSA headquarters, hundreds of supporters of the ban held a rally and
prayer vigil Wednesday, carrying signs that read, "Don't invite sin into
the camp" and "Homosexuality is a sin! BSA please resist Satan's test.
Uphold the ban."
Scoutmaster Darrel Russell of
Weatherford, west of Fort Worth, took his wife and five of their seven
children to the rally. Russell said having gays in the scouting movement
would be like mixing boys and girls.
"The
whole idea is to protect our boys at all costs," Russell said, warning
that if the ban is lifted, "we're shutting down our troop."
Among
those joining the debate was New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an
Eagle Scout who told reporters the ban should be lifted.
"I
can't urge them enough to make sure that every young man is eligible,
regardless of his orientation, to be a scout and to benefit from a great
program that really helps kids develop," he said.
In
Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to comment on the
BSA's delay but reiterated President Barack Obama's view that gays
should be able to participate in the Scouts.
Members
of the Scouts' executive board remained silent about their
deliberations during and after their meeting. Police and security guards
blocked journalists from entering the meeting area, and board members
approached as they walked to their cars outside the hotel declined to
comment.
However, it's likely the board - and corporations that contribute to the BSA - will face continued pressure.
By
delaying the vote, the Scouts "have guaranteed continuing controversy
and increased pressures on corporate sponsors to withdraw funding," said
professor Kenneth Sherrill, a gay rights advocate who teaches political
science at Hunter College in New York.
No
national polling has been released conveying how current Scout parents
and leaders feel about the ban.
But overall, U.S. voters favor
eliminating it by 55 percent to 33 percent, according to a Quinnipiac
University poll released Wednesday. Quinnipiac said the poll's margin of
error was plus/minus 2.3 percentage points.
"Now
that the armed forces ban on openly gay service members has been
lifted, and polls show increasing acceptance of same-sex marriage, most
American voters think it's time to open up the Boy Scouts, too," said
Peter Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac's Polling Institute.
