Embrace of LGBT agenda has destroyed the Boy Scouts of America
In the culture war being waged against morality and religion by LGBT extremists, one of the greatest casualties has been the Boy Scouts of America and its embrace of the LGBT agenda.
This past summer, the Boy Scouts of America took another step toward Sodom when “leadership” decided to invite LGBTQ advocates to attend the organization’s national jamboree (via TheStockDork.com):
The Boy Scouts of America have stirred up controversy by extending an invitation to LGBTQ advocates at their national jamboree camp in West Virginia. This move has been praised by some, like LGBTQ advocate Mike De Socio, who believes it creates an inclusive environment for all kids, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation.
However, critics argue that this shift towards embracing sexual diversity contradicts the organization’s original purpose, which was focused on guiding young men through their adolescent years and puberty.
The controversy deepens as the scouting movement faces a decline in attendance, with only 15,000 scouts attending the 2023 jamboree compared to 40,000 in 2011. While De Socio claims that the decline is not due to the welcoming policies, skeptics raise concerns about the organization’s ability to attract members.
The Boy Scouts of America have faced various challenges in recent years, including a sexual abuse scandal, bankruptcy, and membership decline. Amidst these issues, the organization’s leadership has been pushing for diversity and inclusion, which has led to the introduction of a new diversity merit badge required for Eagle Scout rank. (Emphasis mine)
De Socia claims the decline in membership has nothing to do with the Boy Scouts of America embracing the LGBT agenda, but the facts indicate otherwise.
In June 2000, an attempt by LGBT extremists to have homosexuals serve as scoutmasters reached the Supreme Court, and in a 5-4 decision, SCOTUS upheld the right of the Boy Scouts of America to exclude them under the Freedom of Association protections found in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. Under this ruling, BSA continued to flourish.
This changed a few years later when former Secretary of State Robert Gates — BSA President from 2014-2016 — determined that the SCOTUS ruling didn’t fit the LGBT agenda, so he announced a policy change in July 2015 that allowed homosexual men to be Scout Leaders. The policy allegedly provided an exemption for religious institutions.
“For far too long this issue has divided and distracted us,” Gates said at the time. “Now it’s time to unite behind our shared belief in the extraordinary power of Scouting to be a force for good.”
Gates said lifting the ban was necessary to avoid being the target of lawsuits that the Scouts would likely lose even though the Supreme Court had already determined otherwise. In the end, the new policy created an environment where lawsuits increased, and religious institutions began having their religious liberty rights chipped away.
This outcome was predicted at the time by Kenneth Upton, a lawyer for the LGBT-rights group Lambda Legal. “There will be a period of time where they’ll have some legal protection, but that doesn’t mean the lawsuits won’t keep coming,” said Upton. “They will become increasingly marginalized from the direction society is going.”
FOOTNOTE: This wasn’t the first time Gates helped pave the way for the LGBT agenda; he was Secretary of Defense when the military repealed the “don’t ask – don’t tell” policy.
With the floodgates now open, the Boy Scouts of America took the LGBT agenda up a notch in February 2017 when then-Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh announced that the organization would eliminate the need to be a boy in order to be a Boy Scout:
“As one of America’s largest youth-serving organizations, the Boy Scouts of America continues to work to bring the benefits of our programs to as many children, families and communities as possible.
“While we offer a number of programs that serve all youth, Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting are specifically designed to meet the needs of boys. For more than 100 years, the Boy Scouts of America, along with schools, youth sports and other youth organizations, have ultimately deferred to the information on an individual’s birth certificate to determine eligibility for our single-gender programs. However, that approach is no longer sufficient as communities and state laws are interpreting gender identity differently, and these laws vary widely from state to state.
“Starting today, we will accept and register youth in the Cub and Boy Scout programs based on the gender identity indicated on the application. Our organization’s local councils will help find units that can provide for the best interest of the child.” (Emphasis mine)
Despite numerous warnings of where these decisions would ultimately lead, the Boy Scouts of America continued its surrender to the LGBT agenda and in April 2019, we learned the truth about its failure to provide moral leadership. In a report by NBC New York, it was revealed that 8,000 adults were suspected of sexually abusing more than 12,000 children over the years, and that these incidents had been kept secret according to victim’s rights attorney Jeff Anderson:
“For many, many years there’s been an excavation of what are called the ‘perversion files’—those are files held and hoarded at the Boy Scouts of America headquarters.
“Those ‘perversion files’ that they’ve had reflect that they have removed thousands of offenders of childhood sexual abuse over the years, and they’ve kept that in files secretly.”
Facing mounting legal costs from defending itself against lawsuits alleging the sexual abuse of boys, the Boy Scouts of America declared bankruptcy and filed Chapter 11 in February 2020. This led to a September 2022 ruling by a Delaware federal bankruptcy court granting final approval of the reorganization plan for the Boy Scouts of America, a plan that is expected to pay out more than $2.4 billion in compensation to over 82,000 victims of sexual abuse.
By the way, in case you were wondering . . . Yes, there is a Trump connection to the Boy Scouts of America and the LGBT agenda. It was Trump’s Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who led the push to admit homosexual boys into the Scouts when he was BSA president a few years prior to Gates assuming the position.
The objectives of the Boy Scouts of America are referred to as the “Aims of Scouting” and they are: moral character development, citizenship training, and development of physical, mental, and emotional fitness. And the Boy Scout oath states, in part, that a scout will do his duty to God and his country, to keep himself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.
After embracing the LGBT agenda, it’s clear that the Boy Scouts of America no longer believe in these tenets.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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