Poll: Majority of US voters would like the Boy Scouts to drop its gay ban
A new poll has found that a majority of US voters think the Boy Scouts of America should drop its ban on gay scouts, volunteers and staff.
The Quinnipiac University poll, which surveyed 1,772 people by telephone between 30 January and 4 February, found that 55% of people thought the BSA should lift the ban, whilst only 33% thought the ban should be retained.
The research signalled a large gender gap with women wanting to see the ban dropped 61% to 27% while men supported allowing gay people to join the boy scouts 49% to 39%.
“Now that the armed forces ban on openly gay service members has been lifted, and polls show increasing acceptance of same-sex marriage, most American voters think it’s time to open up the Boy Scouts too,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Quinnipiac University said in a statement that: “White Catholics support gay scouts 63 – 25 percent. Among white Protestants, 44 percent say open up scouting and 41 percent say no. White evangelical Protestants oppose gay scouts 56 – 33 percent.”
Religious opposition to the lifting of the ban noted that out of 2.7 million members across the US, around 70% of Boy Scout groups are hosted by churches and other faith-based groups, including the Catholic and Mormon churches
The poll had a margin of error of 2.3 percentage points
The argument had been heating up on both sides of the debate on whether or not the Scouts should drop the national ban, which would effectively mean individual scout troops could decide on whether to be inclusive of gay members or not.
The vote by the BSA is expected to consult 1,400 voting members during its annual meeting in May.
Last week one US radio host said the scouts should “shut down” rather than allow gays in, and that these are signs of the “end times”, and another said that allowing gay scout masters would allow “gay activists” to “spread deviant sexuality”.
