The national president of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), Robert Gates, admitted Thursday his organization could not continue practicing its traditional ban on participation by openly gay adults.
“The status quo in our movement’s membership standards cannot be maintained,” Gates said at the BSA’s national annual meeting in Atlanta, according to The Associated Press.
Gates, a former secretary of Defense, cited growing public acceptance of homosexuality and same-sex marriage as proof the ban might present the BSA with future membership challenges.
{mosads}“I remind you of the recent debates we have seen in places like Indiana and Arkansas over discrimination based on sexual orientation, not to mention the impending U.S. Supreme Court decision this summer on gay marriage,” Gates said.
“We must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be.”
Gates said no policy changes would occur at the BSA’s national level during this year’s meeting.
He nonetheless asked that the organization quickly revisit its local and national policies given that recent events “have confronted us with urgent challenges I did not foresee and we cannot ignore.”
AP said the BSA’s New York chapter had announced in early April it would admit America’s first openly gay Eagle Scout as a summer camp leader.
Gates said Thursday he believed penalizing local chapters for such actions outside national guidelines unfairly punished boys participating in scouting.
He added that new legal protections against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation could mire the BSA in expensive legal battles.
“Thus, between internal challenges and potential legal conflicts, the BSA finds itself in an unsustainable position, a position that makes us vulnerable to the possibility the courts will simply order us at some point to change our membership policy,” Gates said.
He also noted that such legal concerns could also impact the BSA’s ban on atheist membership.
“Waiting for the courts is a gamble with huge stakes,” he said.
“Alternatively, we can move at some future date — but sooner rather than later — to seize control of our own future, set our own course and change our policy in order to allow charter partners — units sponsoring organizations — to determine the standards for their Scout leaders,” Gates said.
“I truly fear that any other alternative will be the end of us as a national movement.”
Gates assumed the BSA’s top leadership position in May 2014.
He surprised Scouts last year by revealing that he would have supported gay Scout leaders in the organization’s ranks.
The BSA voted in May 2013 to admit gay scouts into its troops. That change in policy first took effect in January 2014.