This paper examines the Boy Scouts of America's history of discrimination and argues for complete policy reform regarding LGBTQ+ membership and adult participation. The author traces BSA's discriminatory practices from racial segregation through the 21st century, when the organization banned gay members until 2014. While BSA lifted restrictions on youth membership, the paper contends that bans on gay and lesbian adults persist, creating a double standard that contradicts the organization's stated commitment to serving all American youth. The paper uses specific cases and comparative analysis with other institutions to demonstrate that complete non-discrimination is both ethically necessary and achievable.
The Boy Scouts of America has been operating in one form or another since February 10, 1910. As the largest youth organization in the United States, with over 2.7 million children and over 1 million adult volunteers, BSA claims to help train youth in responsible citizenship and character development. Yet until January 1, 2014, the organization actively banned and removed children for a single reason: being different. This fundamental contradiction between stated values and actual practice raises a serious question: How can an organization claim to promote character development while discriminating against its own members? The Boy Scouts have maintained the same rules and beliefs since 1910—a time when America still had legal segregation. The time for change has long passed. The Boy Scouts need to reform their policies and finally allow all people to participate, regardless of sexual orientation, just as discrimination based on race has been rejected.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made discrimination based on race illegal. Fifty years later, the Boy Scouts of America were still discriminating against children solely because of their sexual orientation. This pattern is not accidental. The organization shows a consistent historical resistance to inclusion: the Civil Rights Act formally outlawed racial discrimination, yet BSA continued to segregate their councils until 1974. The "Old Hickory Council" was the last remaining segregated scout council—meaning it took a full decade after the Civil Rights Act for BSA to finally integrate. Knowing this history, it comes as little surprise that the organization only began allowing gay youth members in 2014, while still banning gay and lesbian adults from volunteering.
What is truly troubling is that grown adults have been discriminating against children as young as seven years old. This is not a matter of differing opinions—it is institutional exclusion justified by organizational policy. The parallel between BSA's decade-long resistance to racial integration and its resistance to LGBTQ+ inclusion reveals a pattern: the organization changes only when forced by broader social movement, never willingly.
In modern-day United States, discrimination based on race, belief, or sexual orientation should be unacceptable in any organization, let alone one claiming to serve youth. An individual's sexual orientation should have no place in a professional youth organization like the Boy Scouts. In a statement about the 2014 policy change, a BSA spokesman said, "Our desire is to address this topic internally and continue serving America's youth." Yet this raises an uncomfortable question: Does the organization consider gay children to be part of "America's youth"? If BSA truly wants to serve all American youth, then it must serve all of them without picking and choosing based on sexual orientation.
Just because a child is gay does not make them any less American. They carry American passports bearing the seal of the United States; therefore, they are America's youth. The President of the United States has explicitly weighed in on this issue, stating that gays and lesbians should have "access and opportunity the same way everybody else does, in every institution and walk of life." The Scouts, as the President noted, are a great institution promoting young people and exposing them to leadership opportunities that serve them for the rest of their lives. No one should be barred from that opportunity. When a child or adult decides they want to join or volunteer with the Boy Scouts, they should be able to do so without their sexual orientation being questioned—in fact, such personal information should be irrelevant to membership.
The Boy Scouts of America may claim to promote good character, but their actions tell a different story. Consider the case of Eagle Scout Eric Jones, who had been with the organization for nearly ten years before being expelled simply for being gay. When he finally gathered the courage to tell a camp director about his sexual orientation, the director's response was immediate and devastating: "By telling me what you just told me, it automatically takes you out of the program. I wish you hadn't of done that." With those words, the Boy Scouts of America turned their back on a faithful employee and Eagle Scout.
Eric Jones had achieved the rank of Eagle Scout—an honor that is not easy to attain. He was not just a member; he was an employee of BSA, working at one of their camps to train and guide other children. Until the moment he revealed his sexual orientation, he was obviously exemplary in every way; otherwise, he would never have reached the rank of Eagle Scout or been employed by the organization. Nothing about him changed except his willingness to be honest about who he is. Yet the Boy Scouts instantly fired him and severed all ties.
This is not a policy matter or a theoretical debate. This is discrimination in its purest form. Discrimination is the unjust treatment of different categories of people, and that is precisely what happened to Eric Jones. A man who had dedicated ten years of his life to the organization and proven his worth as both a scout and an employee was removed the moment his sexual orientation became known. The question becomes: what fundamentally changed about him? Nothing. He was the same person with the same skills, the same character, and the same dedication. The only thing that changed was the organization's willingness to accept him.
While the Boy Scouts of America did finally change their policy to allow youth members of all sexual orientations, they continue to discriminate against adults. A seventeen-year-old gay Eagle Scout who turns eighteen is no longer permitted to participate with the organization in any capacity. Gay and lesbian parents are barred from volunteering with their own children's troops simply because of their sexual orientation. The BSA treats these individuals as second-class citizens, as if their orientation somehow disqualifies them from serving youth.
This creates an absurd and indefensible inconsistency: young people are welcome up to age seventeen, but the moment they turn eighteen, they are banned. Gay and lesbian parents—who are presumably raising children in their own homes—are deemed unfit to volunteer at their children's scout meetings. How does this logic make sense? The BSA has not addressed this glaring contradiction, instead choosing to maintain discriminatory policies that affect not just the organization's youth members, but families and entire communities.
The Boy Scouts of America have been guiding and molding children and young adults since 1910. The organization is so highly regarded that individuals who receive the rank of Eagle Scout are given immediate promotion upon entering the U.S. Armed Forces. This prestige makes the organization's discriminatory history all the more shameful. From taking a full decade after the Civil Rights Act to desegregate, to the case of Eric Jones—immediately banned after ten years of service for revealing his sexual orientation—BSA has consistently chosen exclusion over inclusion.
The contrast is stark and undeniable. Today, a gay man can serve in the U.S. Military, fighting and dying for his country. Yet that same man cannot volunteer at his son's Cub Scout troop. This disparity is not merely inconsistent; it is a moral failure. It is 2014, and such discrimination should not still be happening. The Boy Scouts of America must drop all discriminatory policies once and for all—not just for youth members, but for adults as well. True character development and responsible citizenship begin with treating all people with dignity and respect, regardless of sexual orientation. Nothing less will suffice.
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