By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - The Boy Scouts of America may soon
give sponsors of troops the authority to decide whether to accept gays
as scouts and leaders - a potentially dramatic retreat from an
exclusionary nationwide policy that has provoked relentless protests.
Under the change now being discussed, the different
religious and civic groups that sponsor Scout units would be able to
decide for themselves how to address the issue - either maintaining an
exclusion of gays, as is now required of all units, or opening up their
membership.
Gay-rights activists were elated at the prospect of
change, sensing another milestone to go along with recent advances for
same-sex marriage and the end of the ban on gays serving openly in the
military.
However, Southern Baptist leaders - who consider
homosexuality a sin - were furious about the possible change and said
its approval might encourage Southern Baptist churches to support other
boys' organizations instead of the BSA.
Monday's announcement of the possible change comes
after years of protests over the no-gays policy - including petition
campaigns that have prompted some corporations to suspend donations to
the Boy Scouts.
Under the proposed change, said BSA spokesman Deron
Smith, "the Boy Scouts would not, under any circumstances, dictate a
position to units, members, or parents."
Smith said the change could be announced as early
as next week, after BSA's national board concludes a regularly scheduled
meeting on Feb. 6. The meeting will be closed to the public.
The BSA, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in
2010, has long excluded both gays and atheists. Smith said a change in
the policy toward atheists was not being considered, and that the BSA
continued to view "Duty to God" as one of its basic principles.
Protests over the no-gays policy gained momentum in
2000, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the BSA's right to exclude
gays. Scout units lost sponsorships by public schools and other entities
that adhered to nondiscrimination policies, and several local Scout
councils made public their displeasure with the policy.
More recently, pressure surfaced on the Scouts' own
national executive board. Two high-powered members - Ernst & Young
CEO James Turley and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson - indicated they
would try to work from within to change the membership policy, which
stood in contrast to their own companies' non-discrimination policies.
Amid petition campaigns, shipping giant UPS Inc.
and drug-manufacturer Merck announced that they were halting donations
from their charitable foundations to the Boy Scouts as long as the
no-gays policy was in force.
Also, local Scout officials drew widespread
criticism in recent months for ousting Jennifer Tyrrell, a lesbian mom,
as a den leader of her son's Cub Scout pack in Ohio and for refusing to
approve an Eagle Scout application by Ryan Andresen, a California teen
who came out as gay last fall.
Tyrrell said she's thrilled for parents and their
children who've been excluded from scouting and "for those who are in
Scouts and hiding who they are."
"For me it's not just about the Boy Scouts of
America, it's about equality," she told The Associated Press. "This is a
step toward equality in all aspects."
Many of the protest campaigns, including one
seeking Tyrrell's reinstatement, had been waged with help from the Gay
& Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
"The Boy Scouts of America have heard from scouts,
corporations and millions of Americans that discriminating against gay
scouts and scout leaders is wrong," said Herndon Graddick, GLAAD's
president. "Scouting is a valuable institution, and this change will
only strengthen its core principles of fairness and respect."
The Scouts had reaffirmed the no-gays policy as
recently as last year, and appeared to have strong backing from
conservative religious denominations - notably the Mormons, Roman
Catholics and Southern Baptists - which sponsor large numbers of Scout
units. Under the proposed change, they could continue excluding gays.
Prior to Monday's announcement, the BSA conferred
with some leaders of these religious groups, including the Rev. Frank
Page, who leads the Southern Baptist Executive Committee.
According Roger S. Oldham, a spokesman for the
executive committee, Page then wrote to the Scouts "expressing his
tremendous dismay at the decision."
"They had been working for months on this proposal
and just days before they informed us," Oldham said in a telephone
interview. "We would anticipate that there would be a very significant
backlash to this as churches reevaluate whether scouting comports with."
If the Scouts proceed with the change, Oldham said,
SBC leaders were likely to issue a statement "expressing disappointed
and encouraging our churches to support alternative boys organizations."
Neither the Catholic Church nor the Mormons' Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued official statements as to
how they would respond.
Said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, "The bishops hope the Boy Scouts
will continue to work under the Judeo-Christians principles upon which
they were founded and under which they have served youth well."
Were the change adopted, said Deron Smith, "there
would no longer be any national policy regarding sexual orientation, and
the chartered organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting would
accept membership and select leaders consistent with each organization's
mission, principles, or religious beliefs.
"BSA members and parents would be able to choose a
local unit that best meets the needs of their families," he said. "Under
this proposed policy, the BSA would not require any chartered
organization to act in ways inconsistent with that organization's
mission, principles, or religious beliefs."
The announcement came shortly after new data showed
that membership in the Cub Scouts - the BSA's biggest division -
dropped sharply last year, and was down nearly 30 percent over the past
14 years.
According to figures provided by the organization,
Cub Scout ranks dwindled by 3.4 percent, from 1,583,166 in 2011 to
1,528,673 in 2012. That's down from 2.17 million in 1998.
The Boy Scouts attribute the decline largely to
broad social changes, including the allure of video games and the
proliferation of youth sports leagues and other options for after-school
activities.
However, critics of the Scouts suggest that its
recruitment efforts have been hampered by high-profile controversies -
notably the court-ordered release of files dealing with sex abuse
allegations and persistent protests over the no-gays policy.
The BSA's overall "traditional youth membership" -
Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturers - totaled 2,658,794 in 2012,
compared to more than 4 million in peak years of the past. There were
910,668 Boy Scouts last year, a tiny increase from 2011, while the ranks
of Venturers - a program for youths 14 and older- declined by 5.5
percent.
In addition to flak over the no-gays policy, the
Scouts have been buffeted by multiple court cases related to past
allegations of sexual abuse by Scout leaders, including those chronicled
in long-confidential records that are widely known as the "perversion
files."
Through various cases, the Scouts have been forced
to reveal files dating from the 1960s to 1991. They detailed numerous
cases where abuse claims were made and Boy Scout officials never alerted
authorities and sometimes actively sought to protect the accused.
The Scouts are now under a California court order,
affirmed this month by the state Supreme Court, to turn over sex-abuse
files from 1991 through 2011 to the lawyers for a former Scout who
claims a leader molested him in 2007, when he was 13. It's not clear how
soon the files might become public.
The BSA has apologized for past lapses and
cover-ups, and has stressed the steps taken to improve youth protection
policy. Since 2010, for example, it has mandated that any suspected
abuse be reported to police.
___
Associated Press writers John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Rachel Zoll in New York contributed to this report.
___
Boy Scouts: http://www.scouting.org/
___
David Crary can be reached at http://twitter.com/CraryAP
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