Boy Scouts consider dropping anti-gay policy

The Boy Scouts of America is considering removing a policy that denies membership to open homosexuals — and people involved in local Scouts organizations say that change would be welcomed.

The current policy states that the Boy Scouts of America will not admit homosexual members. But on Jan. 28, the organization announced it is considering dropping its ban on gay members.

Joel Dunn, district chairman for the Orange County Boy Scouts, said the announcement came as a surprise — especially after the national organization reaffirmed its ban on gay scouts in July, seemingly putting the issue to bed.

Dunn said if the policy is changed, he thinks the number of Boy Scouts in Chapel Hill would increase. He added that the national organization might release its decision today.

“I know there are many people who are both volunteers and families that have either questioned or ceased to be affiliated because of the national policy” he said.

Valerie Flax, a research assistant professor in UNC’s department of nutrition with a son in Cub Scouts, said she would welcome a change in policy. Cub Scouting is for boys ages 7 to 10.

“I would be very happy if they allowed gay people to be involved in the Scouts,” Flax said.

She said she has known parents with children in Cub Scouts who were not comfortable with the children graduating to Boy Scouts because of what they view as discriminatory policies.

Flax and Dunn said because most Boy Scouts join the group at a young age, sexual orientation does not typically become an issue until later.

Flax also said she thinks membership in the Chapel Hill troops would increase if the policy changed.

She and Dunn said the increase would likely come from parents who had objected to the gay ban allowing their children to join, not from a previously banned Scouts joining.

UNC student Tate Waddell, an openly gay alumnus of the Boy Scouts, said though he thinks Chapel Hill’s membership might increase, it would not be a universal trend.

For example, he said, because of the smaller number of openly gay men in his hometown of Hickory, troop members might feel threatened by the change.

The change in policy would not force individual troops to accept openly gay individuals, but it would make it possible for troops to do so.

Waddell said though the legislation would set a minimum standard for the Boy Scouts, there has to be a larger change in mentality among the individual groups.

“I think that the biggest thing that has to happen is a change in the individual troops and how the individuals think about the LGBT community,” he said.

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