The Boy Scouts of America told a Seattle church on Sunday they can no longer remain the host of Troop 98 since they support its openly gay scoutmaster.
According to the New York Daily News, the Rainier Beach United Methodist Church planned to keep George McGrath, 49, as their local troop's leader despite a ban on gay scoutmasters.
McGrath was made a scoutmaster around the same time the BSA voted to accept openly gay youth into its organization. However, his membership was revoked on March 31.
The anti-gay organization claimed McGrath, who has been married for 20 years, "deliberately injected" his sexuality to push a "personal agenda," NBCNews.com said.
Deron Smith, a BSA spokesman, said closing the church's troop "saddened" the organization.
"Because the church no longer agrees to the terms of the BSA chartered organization agreement, which includes following BSA policies, it is no longer authorized to offer the Scouting program," Smith said.
A nearby community center is set to take over the troop's home base, the Daily News said.
Rainier Beach Rev. Monica Corsaro slammed the decision, claiming it went "against everything the Boy Scouts is about."
"It seems to me that when you are in a dispute with a partner you try to work it out with the partner. It's very clear we're not viewed as an equal partner," she said.
Many people took to social media to express their outrage at the Boy Scouts' decision.
"The Boy Scouts of America continues to be an upstanding organization," Igor Bobic of Talking Points Memo sarcastically tweeted.
