For over 100 years, the Boy Scouts of America has shaped millions of young boys into men who make ethical and moral decisions and are meaningful members of society. It is the largest youth organization in the United States, serving millions of boys every year and there are scouting organizations in 120 countries. The mission of the Boy Scouts of America, or BSA, is "to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law." Since its founding, the BSA's policy has stated that no scouts or adult leaders shall be members of the Boy Scouts of America if they are homosexual, a policy that for years has gone unchanged. Over the course of the last two decades, the policy has been under fire from several human rights groups and discussions began as to whether the policy should be changed. This was shown in the 2000 Supreme Court case Boy Scouts of America v. Dale that ruled that the BSA had the right to exclude gays (Cloud). This has created a big controversy and has been a heated question in the news.
There are two main sides to the policy. The side in favor of keeping the policy argue that the policy has worked for 100 years so why try and fix something that is not broken? They also state that allowing gays into the scouting program will go against the beliefs of religious institutions which make up about seventy percent of the charting organizations (Key Churches). Many fear that this would do one of two things; force some churches to support values that they may not believe, or it would cause many of these charters to drop their support altogether. There is also the idea that the BSA would be preaching bad morals by having gay leaders involved and that youth should not have that kind of example for a role model. This side also feels that changing the policy to allow gays in the program would pose a safety concern for the youth involved by exposing them to the danger of sexual assault by gay youth or predation by gay adults.
