Controversy
The Boy Scouts give female adult leaders (mothers) most of the privileges of male adult leaders. This policy was instituted in response to a shortage of fathers willing to participate actively in running the troops.
Until 1954, the Boy Scouts of America was a segregated organization. Colored Troops, as they were officially known, were given little support from Districts, Councils and the national offices. It was believed that Colored Scouts and Leaders would be less able to live up to the ideals of the Boy Scouts.
Some practices of the organization have received increased public attention, largely beginning in the last quarter of the 20th century. Two particularly controversial policies have been the BSA leadership's prohibition (usually enforced) of atheist or homosexual members and leaders. Some donors of funding or meeting space have reduced their support in protest of these policies.
BSA policy has also led to quarrels between the BSA and the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). The UUA has tolerance as one of its defining virtues, and this includes respect and inclusion of atheists, gays, and lesbians. The BSA, which had long honored the UUA with religious badges, along with other religions that had Boy Scout programs, withdrew the badges, saying that Boy Scouts could no longer wear Unitarian Universalist badges on their uniforms. The UUA attempted to compromise, removing language that the BSA considers offensive from its official program manuals and informing young Unitarian Universalist Boy Scouts of the virtue of tolerance by other means. However, the BSA rejected this attempt at compromise, and the UUA responded by continuing its Boy Scout program on its own and unilaterally encouraging Boy Scouts to wear Unitarian Universalist religious badges on their uniforms.
The BSA believes that "an avowed homosexual is not a role model for the values espoused in the Scout Oath and Law". Although it officially makes no effort to discover the sexual orientation of any person, BSA scout leaders have investigated and expelled non-avowed homosexuals [1]. Lawsuits over this matter have gone as high as the United States Supreme Court, which ruled (in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale) that the BSA is a private association with the right to set its own standards for membership and leadership.
Many critics, especially internal ones, point out that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the single largest donor to BSA, has threatened to remove all support if the policy against homosexuals is removed, and that this is the single largest reason for the policy. The LDS Church in Canada funds the Scouting organization there, in spite of an explicit policy allowing homosexual leaders, and also funds the Girl Scouts of America who similarly tolerate openly homosexual leadership.
Some individual councils, such as the Minuteman Council and Old Colony Council of Massachusetts, have not enforced the controversial policies, apparently defying the national council. In August 2001, a spokesperson for the Minuteman Council was quoted by the Boston Globe as saying "Discussions about sexual orientation do not have a place in Scouts. the Scouts will not inquire into a person's sexual history, and that person will not expose their sexual orientation one way or the other." The council argued that their "don't ask, don't tell" policy does not, in fact, conflict with the national policy, but in public discussions, both supporters and opponents of the national policy clearly regard the above-cited Massachusetts' councils' policies as being meaningfully different from the national policy.
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