After Supreme Court action in 2000 and an affirmation of the ruling in July last year, the Boy Scouts of America are again having a discussion: Should gay scouts and leaders be admitted into the organization?
One of the largest private youth organizations in the country is reconsidering allowing gay members and leaders into the group.
The East Carolina Council of BSA, based in Kinston, has 309 chartered organizations with more than 8,000 members and 3,500 leaders in this part of the state. Scout Executive Ray Franks said changes will be limited if the national board decides to lift the organization ban on admitting homosexual boys and men.
“The outcome I hope for is our volunteers understand that no one is being forced to change,” he said. “At no time will any unit or leader be forced to take … youth or adults they don’t want to take. It’s totally up to the chartered organization to make that decision.”
BSA units must have sponsoring (or chartered) organizations, which are usually civic groups and churches. Of more than 110,000 scouting units across the United States, nearly 70 percent are chartered by religious groups, according to an Associated Press report.
Franks said the Methodist church is the largest chartered organization that supports the Scouts.
“We have to follow the policies of the Boy Scouts of America, whatever it is,” he said. “But local chartered organizations get to make the decision about (who) they will admit.”
A 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case, Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, ruled allowing homosexuality in BSA would interfere with its message after Scoutmaster John Dale publicized his sexual orientation and was expelled from the Scouts. In July, the national executive board released a statement affirming the ban, calling it “the best policy for the organization,” according to multiple reports.
“I don’t think that (lifting the ban) would be a healthy thing for scouting, at all,” said Kinston lawyer Jimbo Perry,whose family has been active with BSA the past four generations. “I understand some people may say one of the things that scouting promotes is diversity and tolerance … but the one thing scouting has stood for in my mind since we’ve been involved has been that there are certain values and there are certain things that are right and wrong.
“Scouting has stood for what (is) right.”
Perry’s grandfather lost his own father and two older brothers at a young age, not getting a chance to be involved with BSA. He pushed his three sons to participate, and the Perry family became big scout supporters. Jimbo Perry, who became an Eagle Scout in ninth grade, said his earliest memory was his father taking him to a scout meeting.
Joining the Boy Scouts became a right of passage for the men in his family — Perry even has the East Carolina Council facility bearing his family name.
Perry, still actively involved with four of five sons becoming Eagle Scouts, said East Carolina Council will have its own meeting next week to decide its stance on the policy. The national decision is rumored to be released early next week.
“If they decide to go with this, it’s going to really erode a lot of the support that scouts have,” he said. “It’s really going to be more harmful than anything. If would not be a good policy change for the scouting program.”
Local Scoutmaster Tommy Harper said sexual preference hasn’t ever come up with his troops.
“I’ve never been a part of denying anyone for that reason,” he said. “I personally don’t have a problem with allowing them in. It’s not a factor to me.”
Franks said the issue has arisen once more because “internal partners have expressed a concern that we should reconsider the policy.” In the wake of Barack Obama being the first president to use the term “gay” in an inauguration speech, conversations about sexual orientation may spark.
“I really don’t know what effect (Obama using the word ‘gay’) has,” Franks said. “The discussion has come about because chartered partners wanted to discuss the issues.”
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at jessika.morgan@kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.