Boy Scout Resolution on Open Homosexuality Violates Timeless Values of Scouting

This resolution would introduce open homosexuality into the ranks and eventually the leadership of Scouting. This is totally unacceptable to the vast majority of Scouting parents who want to keep their exclusive right to discuss issues of sexuality with their sons.

The resolution requires all Scouting families and faith-based organizations that object to homosexuality on religious grounds to affirm its moral validity. It introduces open and overt sexuality into an organization that is designed to foster character and leadership, thereby clouding Scouting’s most fundamental purposes. And the proposal says, in essence, that homosexuality is morally acceptable until a boy turns 18–then, when he comes of age, he’s removed from the Scouts. The policy is incoherent and, sadly, an affront to the notion that Scouts are brave, reverent, and ‘morally straight.’

The resolution specifically references homosexual youth but this is a distinction without a difference because advancing into leadership positions is integral to the Scouting experience. This resolution would subject the organization to crippling lawsuits because the resolution jettisons the core value that homosexual conduct is immoral. This core value of the Boy Scouts was the underpinning of the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the existing policy.

The stated mission and message of the Boy Scouts is clear, and changing their policies to appease one group will only encourage other special interest groups to demand that the Scouts make more changes to please them. An atheist leader has already declared that if the policy on homosexuality changes, then there is no reason why atheists should not also have their way and remove God from the Scout oath and the term ‘reverence’ from the Scout law.

We will continue to work with thousands of Scouting parents and boys from across the country who want to preserve the Scouts’ timeless values that have served the Scouts and the nation well for 103 years,” concluded Perkins.

On May 5, Family Research Council will host a nationwide simulcast event, “Stand with Scouts Sunday,” calling on the organization to reaffirm its longstanding policy on homosexuality. For more information on the simulcast, visit www.standwithscoutssunday.org.