The Boy Scouts of America’s National Executive Board decided Wednesday morning to postpone until May its decision about changing its policy on allowing gay members into scout troops nationwide.
The Boy Scouts’ policy doesn’t allow gay members and leaders into the organization.
The proposed change would leave the decision to individual troop charter holders about whether to accept gay members and leaders into their troops.
“In the past two weeks, Scouting has received an outpouring of feedback from the American public,” said BSA national spokesman Deron Smith in a statement. “It reinforces how deeply people care about Scouting and how passionate they are about the organization.”
Eagle Scout Justin Bickford, board member and communications director for Scouts for Equality, said the change would be a step in the right direction.
“Long term, I truly believe it will have a positive effect,” he said. “Short term, a lot of people are going to be upset they have to make the decision themselves.”
In 2000, the organization won a case in the U.S. Supreme Court that allowed discrimination of sexuality if it is expressed as the organization’s public or private viewpoint.
In July, the organization reaffirmed its ban on gay members and has since faced national backlash. Sponsors, including United Way, UPS and Intel, have pulled funding.
About 2.7 million boys participate in BSA.
Of the more than 100,000 scouting units owned and operated by chartered organizations, nearly 70 percent do so through a religious organization’s charter.
Educational organizations support about 8 percent, partly as a result of the Scouts’ discriminatory policy, said Joseph Jackson, a UF professor of legal skills and a former Scout.
Jackson said he believes that social attitudes have become more accepting and tolerant of people with different sexual orientations.
“I would foresee there would be greater pressure to enact a more equal national policy down the road,” he said.
Austin Reed, a 20-year-old UF biochemistry junior, became an Eagle Scout in 2006.
He said he believes that Boy Scouts should be open to all males, regardless of their sexual orientation.
“I believe it’s not our place, or the Boy Scouts’ place, to discriminate against anybody because it is an all-male group or anything,” he said. “Whatever decision is reached, the result is going to be a lot of people with lots of feeling and emotion about whether it is the right one.”
