In a 45-12 vote, the Boy Scouts of America's 80-member board voted Monday to approve a resolution that lifts the organization-wide ban on gay adult leaders.
Now, individual scout troops will be allowed to make their own choices regarding whether to allow gay men to lead scout troops.
The vote followed an impassioned plea in May by Boy Scouts President Robert Gates, a former U.S. defense secretary, who told the group, "We must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be." Gates, an Eagle Scout, told leaders, "The status quo in our movement's membership standards cannot be sustained," according to The Arizona Republic.
The Boy Scouts' 17-member executive committee earlier this month unanimously approved a resolution that would end the overall ban on gay adult leaders and let individual scout units make their own choices regarding gay leaders. With Monday's vote, the change has now become official policy.
The new resolution has been met with a mix of criticism and praise.
On one hand, even though they are pleased, LGBT advocacy groups have said the change doesn't go far enough.
"Today's vote by the Boy Scouts of America to allow gay, lesbian and bisexual adults to work and volunteer is a welcome step toward erasing a stain on this important organization," Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin in a statement, according to CNN. "But including an exemption for troops sponsored by religious organizations undermines and diminishes the historic nature of today's decision. Discrimination should have no place in the Boy Scouts, period."
On the other hand, certain religious groups believe that the decision goes too far.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a statement that the organization is "re-evaluating" its relationship with the Scouts, according to the Mormon News Room.
"The Church has always welcomed all boys to its Scouting units regardless of sexual orientation," the statement reads. "However, the admission of openly gay leaders is inconsistent with the doctrines of the Church and what have traditionally been the values of the Boy Scouts of America."
Former Boy Scout leadership team member Jon Langbert believes that the new policy isn't a cure-all solution because local troops have complete jurisdiction on whether to allow gay leaders into their troop.
"What does that do to folks like me?" asked Langbert, who is openly gay and gave up his leadership role when other fathers complained. "If I want to participate with my son, do I now have to start ringing up on the phone and calling around to different troops and saying, 'Do you guys discriminate, or am I a first-class citizen in your troop and I can join?'"
One feeling that has been reiterated by ex-scout leaders is that these new changes weren't the result of an earnest willingness to change, but rather because the BSA was "forced to."
The fact that it has been losing funding from companies such UPS, United Way, the Merck Company Foundation and even Disney, only serves to strengthen their point.
