A look at some of the turmoil surrounding the Boy Scouts, from a gay ban to bankruptcy
IRVING, Texas — Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America achieved a vaunted status in the US over the decades, with pine derbies, the Scout Oath and Eagle Scouts becoming part of the lexicon.
Legend has it that American businessman William Boyce was inspired to start the organization after he became lost in the fog in London and was guided to his destination by a youth who declined a tip and told Boyce he was as a scout (they were founded in Britain in 1907) he could not accept money for a good deed.
The American organization, which now welcomes girls from all walks of life and allows them to work toward coveted Eagle Scout status, announced Tuesday that it will change its name to Scouting America as it focuses on inclusion.
Here’s a look at the turmoil the American icon has endured over the decades:
In 1990, the Boy Scouts of America expelled James Dale, an Eagle Scout who had become an assistant scoutmaster, after discovering that he was co-chairman of Rutgers University’s gay and lesbian organization. He sued in 1992 accusing the Boy Scouts of discrimination and lost at the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the organization could maintain membership and leadership criteria that excluded homosexuals.
Conservative groups rallied around the Boy Scouts, but dozens of institutions curtailed support as the ban continued.
It wasn’t until 2013 that the organization began allowing gay scouts. In 2015, the organization ended its blanket ban on adult homosexual leaders, while church-sponsored Scout units could maintain the exclusion for religious reasons.
In 2017, the Boy Scouts announced that they would allow transgender children who identify as boys to enroll in their boys-only programs.
That came after an 8-year-old transgender child was asked to leave his Boy Scout troop in New Jersey after parents and leaders discovered he was transgender.
In what may have been the biggest change, the Boy Scouts of America said in 2017 that girls would be welcome in the program. With that announcement, girls were accepted as Cub Scouts beginning in 2018 and into the flagship Boy Scout program — renamed Scouts BSA — in 2019.
There were nearly 1,000 women in the first class of female Eagle Scouts in 2021. Today, more than 6,000 girls have earned the coveted Eagle Scout rank.
The Girl Scouts of the USA filed a lawsuit, but a settlement was reached after a judge dismissed their claims and said both groups can use words like “scouts” and “scouting.”
When it sought bankruptcy protection in February 2020, the Boy Scouts of America had been named in about 275 lawsuits and told insurers it was aware of another 1,400 claims.
Last year, a federal judge upheld the $2.4 billion bankruptcy plan, allowing the organization to continue operating while compensating more than 80,000 men who filed claims alleging they were sexually assaulted while scouting.