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Boy Scouts expected to lift its ban on gay leaders today

Boy Scouts expected to lift its ban on gay leaders today
The Boy Scouts' membership policy has been increasingly scrutinized in recent years, with prosecutors in New York and Colorado actively investigating the organization's hiring practices.
The Boy Scouts’ membership policy has been increasingly scrutinized in recent years, with prosecutors in New York and Colorado actively investigating the organization’s hiring practices.

The Boy Scouts of America is expected to officially end its ban on gay adult scout leaders today, due to “sea change in the law with respect to gay rights.”

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the Boy Scouts’ president, said in May that the ban was “unsustainable” and that new anti-discrimination laws “have confronted us with urgent challenges I did not foresee and which we cannot ignore.”

However, according to The New York Times, several scouting groups will “still be able to limit leadership jobs to heterosexuals,” with certain units able to choose scout leaders “whose beliefs are consistent with their own,” according to a statement released by the organization.

According to The Washington Post, some “70 percent of Boy Scout troops are run by faith-based groups, many from orthodox communities including Mormons, Catholics, Southern Baptists, and Muslims who do not accept gay equality.”

The Boy Scouts’ membership policy has been increasingly scrutinized in recent years, with prosecutors in New York and Colorado actively investigating the organization’s hiring practices.

The news follows a historic 2013 ballot, in which the Boy Scouts’ 1,400-member council voted to allow gay youths to be part of the organization.

Scouts for Equality have been waiting “on pins and needles” for the vote, and over the weekend Tweeted a series of photographs and names of men and women who’ve been removed from leadership positions over the years:

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