Despite warnings, the world hasn’t ended since Boy Scouts ended ban on gay adults
A year on from the lifting of the ban on gay adult members, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has not imploded, and the world has not ended.
The BSA’s national executive board on 28 July ratified a decision made earlier in 2015 to lift its blanket ban on gay scout leaders.
The BSA previously lifted its ban on gay youth members.
The organisation was warned when it lifted the ban that its membership would dwindle in favour of other scouting troops, but this has not been the case.
Nor has the BSA lost significant financial backers, or church partners .
In fact, according to reports, the youth membership appears to be steadying despite long-time decline.
The Mormon church confirmed last year that it would not split ways with the BSA over the change in policy, despite having anti-LGBT policies itself.
Colorado State Representative Gordon Klingenschmitt warned that the BSA “should be drowned” for lifting the ban.
The lifting of the ban took immediate effect as 79 percent of the board gave approval, concluding that the policy to ban gay adult leaders “was no longer legally defensible.”
Klingenschmitt – a disgraced former Navy chaplain – has a history of making hate-filled anti-gay comments.
In 2014, he claimed that gay soldiers cause problems in the military by “taking breaks on the combat field to change diapers”, because their “treacherous sin” means they “lose control of their bowels”.
He also claimed that “liberals demand public access to rape your girls” by allowing “transgenders” to use female toilets.
