Boy Scouts Vote to End Ban on Gay Leaders

Carrie Dedrick | Updated: Jul 14, 2015

Boy Scouts Vote to End Ban on Gay Leaders

The Boy Scouts of America’s National Executive Committee has unanimously voted to remove the organization’s ban on gay leaders. Next, the BSA’s National Executive Board will vote on the policy change at a meeting on July 27. 

If passed, the change will take effect immediately. The Washington Times reports the National Executive Board is widely expected to vote to remove the ban. 

According to the proposed policy, individual troops will be able to “choose adult leaders whose beliefs are consistent with their own,” whether gay or straight. 

Executive director of Scouts for Equality Zach Wahls said that the vote “hopefully marks the beginning of the end of the Boy Scouts of America’s decades-old ban on gay leaders and parents, like my two moms.”

The vote was not a surprise, as BSA National President Robert Gates said in May that modern-day society and “increasing legal challenges” made the ban on gay leaders unsustainable. 

Boy Scout youth are still discouraged from involvement with “any sexual conduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual.” 

Publication date: July 14, 2015



Boy Scouts Vote to End Ban on Gay Leaders