Washington– The Boy Scouts of America will change several policies at the Pentagon’s request, including a requirement that members use “biological sex at birth and not gender identity,” the Defense Secretary said. Pete Hegseth Announced Friday.
Some of the changes mirror what the organization proposed to the Department of Defense in January, which included discontinuing the merit badge for community citizenship and introducing a merit badge for military service as well as waiving registration fees for children of military personnel.
Under Hegseth, the Pentagon has targeted the military’s partnership with the Boy Scouts of America, denouncing its historic 2024 rebranding of Boy Scouts and other changes in recent years that he sees as part of a “woke culture” effort that he wants to eradicate.
Hegseth said in a video posted to
“We hope it doesn’t happen, but it’s possible,” Hegseth said. “Ideally, I think Boy Scouts should go back to being Scouts as they were originally founded, a group that develops boys into men. Maybe one day.”
Scouting America, based in Irving, Texas, did not immediately comment.
The organization began Allowing gay youth in 2013ended the comprehensive ban on Gay adult leaders in 2015 It announced in 2017 that it would accept transgender students. He started to accept Girls are like Cub Scouts As of 2018 and in the Boy Scout pilot program — Renamed the Scouts BSA – in 2019. As of May 2024, more than 6,000 girls have achieved the coveted Eagle Scout rank.
The Pentagon said in a statement earlier this month that it was reviewing its relationship with the Boy Scouts of America, claiming it had “lost its way” in several ways and calling the organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts “unacceptable.”
“The leadership of the Boy Scouts of America has made decisions that are inconsistent with the values of this administration, including embracing DEl and other social justice and changing gender ideological positions,” the February 6 statement said.
The Pentagon said earlier that it and the Boy Scouts of America are close to an agreement to continue their partnership if the organization quickly implements common-sense core value reforms.
“The Boy Scouts of America is still far from perfect, but they are deeply committed to returning to basic principles,” the statement said. “Return to God and country – immediately!”
The U.S. Army and the Boy Scouts have a long-standing relationship, including the Army’s provision of logistical support to the National Scout Jamboree since its establishment in 1937.
The Army also has a long history of troop sponsorship and Scouting activities on U.S. military bases, and has maintained a strong relationship with Eagle Scouts, whose members often enlist in the armed forces.
In a statement last year, the Boy Scouts of America raised concerns after a report from NPR that the Pentagon intended to reduce support for Scouting programs on military bases as well as for national camps and would eliminate increases in pay grades for Eagle Scouts who recruit.
The Scouts told Hegseth in January that after hearing his suggestions, they had come up with a plan for him to review, which included discontinuing the community citizenship merit badge and introducing the military service merit badge, waiving registration fees for military personnel and holding a ceremony to rededicate themselves to leadership, duty to God, duty to country and service, along with dissolving the DEI board committee.
Founded in 1910, Boy Scouts of America It has achieved cult status in the United States over the decades, with Pinewood Derby, Boy Scouts, and Eagle Scouts becoming part of the lexicon.
Tradition has it that American businessman William Boyce was inspired to start the organization after he got lost in the fog in London and was directed to his destination by a young man who rejected advice, telling Boyce that because he was a Scout (they were formed in Britain in 1907) he could not accept money for a good deed.
Since then, the organization has faced controversies and undergone major changes.
In 1990, the organization fired an Eagle Scout who had become assistant Scoutmaster after discovering that he was co-president of his university’s gay and lesbian organization. He sued in 1992 alleging discrimination and lost before the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the Boy Scouts could maintain membership and leadership standards that excluded gay people.
Conservative groups have rallied around the Boy Scouts, but dozens of organizations have scaled back support as the ban continues. The ban ended in 2013. In 2015, the ban was repealed It ended the blanket ban on adult gay leaders While allowing church-sponsored scout units to maintain exclusion for religious reasons.
In 2017, the Boy Scouts announced they would do just that Allow transgender children Those who identify as boys to register for their programs designated for boys only. This came after an 8-year-old boy was asked to leave a Boy Scout troop in New Jersey after parents and leaders discovered he was transgender.
The Boy Scouts also faced a torrent of sexual assault allegations and sought bankruptcy protection in 2020, when it was named in about 275 lawsuits and told insurers it was aware of another 1,400 claims.
In 2023 as a judge It supported the $2.4 billion bankruptcy plan Allowing the organization to continue operating while compensating more than 80,000 men who filed claims saying they were sexually assaulted while scouting.
Last year, Scouting America President and CEO Roger Krohn acknowledged there was some backlash to the rebranding, but described the overall response as positive that sparked broader interest.
“The fact that we were choosing a gender-neutral name, a lot of people wanted to know more about it,” Krohn said.
The organization said that it witnessed an increase in membership by about 16,000 new Scouts, or less than 2% over the previous year. The organization said at the time that it had just over one million members.
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Stengle reported from Dallas. Associated Press writer Konstantin Torobin contributed to this report.