New BSA President Supports Gay Scouts/Leaders, Won't Reverse Last Year's Decision
by Brig Bagley
27 May 2014
Robert Gates, new President of the Boy Scouts of America, declared that he would have voted to allow gay scouts and leaders in the decision made last year. Gates was director of the CIA, and was hired by BSA to help save the organization from extinction. Enrollment has declined in recent year, much due to the people upset with the bans on gay people. On the flip side, those unhappy with gay scouts enrolling started their new anti-gay scouting, Trail Life USA.
Gates, although he supports gay involvement, says he will not attempt to reverse the decision that was democratically made. Because BSA is volunteer-based, Gates believes making that change would cause enough disagreement to split the program, and that both groups would fail on their own.
Although it would be beneficial to have (open) gay leaders permitted to participate, it is a wise decision on Gate's part to hold off for now. The program needs to re-build in order to survive. Once society has matured enough, the issue can be revisited to reverse the decision made last year. Things like this take a long time, as seen with blacks and women. With a smart man like Gates at the BSA helm, there is no doubt that it will rebound and become the program it once was--without discrimination.
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