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Boy Scouts to 'review' ban on gay scout leaders

The Boy Scouts of America will review a resolution to allow local scout troops to accept gay Scout leaders. But a decision by the Boy Scouts of American was not expected until May 2013.

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REUTERS/David Manning
Eagle Scout Zach Wahls of Iowa City, Ia., talks after delivering a 275,000-signature petition to the Boy Scouts of America's Annual Meeting in Orlando, May 30, 2012. Wahls, the son of gay parents, is seeking the Boy Scouts to change its policies towards homosexuality.
  • By David Carary Associated Press

| New York

The Boy Scouts of America will review a resolution that would allow individual units to accept gays as adult leaders, but a spokesman says there's no expectation that the ban on gay leaders will in fact be lifted any time soon.

The resolution was submitted by a Scout leader from the Northeast in April and presented last week at the Scouts' national meeting in Orlando, Fla., according to BSA spokesman Deron Smith.

Smith said Wednesday it would be referred to a subcommittee, which will then make a recommendation to the national executive board. The process would likely be completed by May 2013, according to Smith, who said there were no plans at this time to change the policy.

RELATED: 7 key issues around gay rights in America

During last week's meeting, the Scouts were presented with a petition, bearing more than 275,000 names, protesting the ouster of a lesbian mother, Jennifer Tyrrell, who'd been serving as a Scout den mother near Bridgeport, Ohio.

Among those who presented the Change.org petition, and met with Scout officials, was Eagle Scout Zach Wahls, an Iowa college student who was raised by lesbian mothers.

Wahls, in a telephone interview, said he and his allies planned a campaign to mobilize opposition to the gay-exclusion policy from within Scout ranks, with the goal of building pressure for the resolution to be approved.

"Up to the day they end this policy, they'll be saying they have no plans to do so," Wahls said. "But there's no question it's costing the Boy Scouts in terms of membership and public support."

In a statement to Change.org, Jennifer Tyrell said: “When I got the call from the Boy Scouts of America signaling that I could no longer serve as my seven-year-old’s Cub Scout den leader, I was heartbroken. But the blow was softened by the outpouring of support I received from my community and the parents of the boys I had dedicated myself to,” said Tyrrell. “I know if it was up to my community, I’d still be a Cub Scout Den Leader today, so this news is definitely a huge step in the right direction for the Boy Scouts of America.”

The Scouts, who celebrated their 100th anniversary in 2010, have had a long-standing policy of excluding gays and atheists. Controversy over the policy intensified in 2000 when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Scouts to maintain the policy in the face of a legal challenge.

Leaders of several regional scouting councils have asked for the policy to be scrapped or modified, to no avail.

RELATED: 7 key issues around gay rights in America

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

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