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“Trail of Betrayal” is a joint project from Scripps broadcast, print and digital journalists based in Washington, D.C. Over 6 months, the Scripps National Investigative team researched and reported on a portion of the Boy Scouts of America's confidential files. The files were designed as a way to protect scouts. It was created to keep individuals out of scouting that Boy Scouts of America deemed "ineligible” to serve. Most individuals on the list were Scout leaders accused of molesting children. The files, which span the period from 1970 to 1991, were obtained through a court-ordered release of the records and...

PLEASANT HILL -- A gay teenager denied his Eagle Scout award because of his sexuality turned in an online petition with more than 400,000 signatures Wednesday urging the National Boy Scouts of America to change its policies against allowing gay members. Ryan Andresen of Moraga marched into the front office of the Mt. Diablo Silverado Council on Ellinwood Way along with his parents and a former member of the same Boy Scout troop who came out as gay two weeks ago. Assemblymember Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, also attended and presented Andresen with a resolution honoring his achievements with the Boy Scouts....

Today, I will depart from my normal commentary about the important election we are facing in less than three weeks. There is something else that deserves our attention.If you asked me to describe myself, I would tell you I am a fairly laid back individual. I am passionate about my politics, as you know, from reading my blog. For the most part, I try to have patience with people I disagree with. However, there are certain issues with which I have a major problem. There is only one thing that gets my hackles up quicker than encountering a bully. Child...

Decades of confidential sexual abuse allegations from within the Boy Scouts of America will spill into public view later today when more than 1,200 of the organization’s “perversion files” are released by order of the Oregon Supreme Court. The files will offer the public an unprecedented look at how suspected molestations were handled by one of the nation’s leading youth organizations from the early 1960s through 1985, a time when awareness of sexual abuse was evolving rapidly. ~snip~ The abuse reports to be released today played a key role as evidence in a landmark Oregon lawsuit in 2010 that resulted...

CEDAR HILLS, Utah — In this hilltop suburb of Salt Lake City, where a vista of white spires signals a concentration of Mormons and their churches, it is a given that every boy will become a Cub Scout at 8 and then a Boy Scout at 11. With mutual exaltation of God and country and a shared aim of nurturing “morally straight” men with leadership skills and a service ethic, the Mormons and the Boy Scouts seem made for each other, as entwined as a square knot. And in an unusual partnership dating to 1913, the Mormon Church has embraced...

The thousands of men expelled from the Irving-based Boy Scouts of America on suspicion of molesting children came from all walks of life — teachers and plumbers, doctors and bus drivers, politicians and police officers. They ranged in age from teenagers to senior citizens and came from troops in every state. As the Scouts have long said, the files suggest no single profile of a predator. But a close look at nearly 1,900 confidential files opened between 1970 and 1991 revealed a pattern: Many suspected molesters engaged in what psychologists today call “grooming behavior,” a gradual seduction in which predators...

A once-secret Boy Scout list of child sex abuse suspects includes several cases in Hawaii. The allegations are from decades ago, released under court order. The men are not still involved with scouting, and Boy Scout policies are now considered highly vigilant in abuse prevention. A database being referred to as the Boy Scouts of America's internal "perversion files" lists four Hawaii names, two with troop-specific allegations of molestation but no apparent arrests or convictions in Hawaii. A group that had formed to help Catholic clergy molestation victims says it hears from now-adult Boy Scout victims too and explains a...

After appealing to the good will and fairness of the Boy Scouts of America to lift its ban on gays, LGBT advocates have a new tactic: Go after the organization’s major funders, from Fortune 500 companies to the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas. And so far, the new strategy seems to be working. The group Scouts for Equality, founded by former Eagle Scout Zach Wahls, recently convinced Intel, the Boys Scouts’ largest corporate funder, to cut off support for Scout councils that don’t have LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination policies. And this week, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign told Dallas Voice...

Ryan Andresen has spent a decade completing the requirements for the coveted Eagle Scout award, and now that he is just about turn 18 -- the cut-off date for attaining the highest honor -- his Boy Scout troop won't approve it because he is gay. His project, a "tolerance wall," was inspired by the years of hazing he endured in middle school in Moraga, Calif., and later at Boy Scout summer camp, where his nicknames were "Tinkerbell" and "faggot." "I had I had no idea what gay was at that point," said Andresen, who described hazing that included, among...

ver two decades, the Boy Scouts of America failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters to police and often hid the allegations from parents and the public. A Los Angeles Times review of 1,600 confidential files dating from 1970 to 1991 has found that Scouting officials frequently urged admitted offenders to quietly resign — and helped many cover their tracks. Volunteers and employees suspected of abuse were allowed to leave citing bogus reasons such as business demands, "chronic brain dysfunction" and duties at a Shakespeare festival. The details are contained in the organization's confidential "perversion files," a blacklist of...

A nine-year-old Cub Scout has quit over the Boy Scouts of America’s policy which does not allow any gay member, volunteer or staff member. Christopher Tiner, of Minot, Maine, had seen in the news that many Eagle Scouts had returned their badges in protest against the exclusion of gay members, volunteers and staff by the Boy Scouts of America. Scott Tiner, Christopher’s father, said that the Cub Scout made the decision entirely on his own. Christopher reflected on his position: “I didn’t like it that they were kicking people out,” he said. “I don’t think it’s fair.” Christopher, formerly of...

Remember how the far left in America has said since the rise of the Tea Party that the right is awash in "violent rhetoric"? What about the proposition to kill the Boy Scouts like one would kill a rabid dog? That is what a columnist for The Atlantic has implied. James Hamblin, the magazine's health editor, proclaimed his desire to kill Boy Scouts based on his distaste for their recently re-affirmed policy of refusing to admit openly gay members. Hamblin feels justified in using violent, even hateful rhetoric to attack the Boy Scouts merely because he disagrees with them. Boy...

LOUISVILLE, August 20, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) –The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) have assured a homosexual will no longer act as an assistant scoutmaster at a Catholic church’s troop. But he will continue to lead Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church’s Girl Scout troop. “I am finding it increasingly difficult to keep a low profile and stay ‘in the closet’ with the Boy Scouts,” Greg Bourke, 54, wrote in a letter to the Lincoln Heritage Council on June 22. Bourke said he had “become increasingly uncomfortable with the don’t ask, don’t tell policy of the Boy Scouts…I feel like it’s hateful...

NEW YORK (AP) — When it comes to gays and the Boy Scouts, President Barack Obama and the youth organization he serves as honorary president have agreed to disagree. The White House on Wednesday said Obama opposes the youth organization's recently reaffirmed policy of excluding gays as members and adult leaders. He has no plans to resign as honorary president, White House spokesman Shin Inouye said.

August 7, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Although the Boy Scouts of America recently reaffirmed a policy against having open homosexuals as members, at least some local councils say they don’t consider the policy actually binding on their own operations. A Catholic parish in Minnesota was recently blindsided when they learned the Boy Scouts’ reputation for Christian conservative values didn’t bear out in the case of their local Council, which declared last month that it would continue admitting individuals who were openly homosexual. “Every council is reflective of their community,” said Kent York, spokesman for the Twin Cities-based Northern Star Council, Minnesota’s...

A spokesperson for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has advised that the former Massachusetts governor disagrees with the Boy Scout’s current policy prohibiting open homosexuals from serving as members and leaders. According to The Associated Press, Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul told the news outlet in an email that Romney still stands by his beliefs that homosexual men should be able to serve in the organization. She specifically noted that Romney had outlined his views in 1994 during a political debate, and that his stance has not changed. “I support the right of the Boy Scouts of America to decide what...

For nearly a century, the Boy Scouts of America has relied on a confidential blacklist known as the "perversion files" as a crucial line of defense against sexual predators. Scouting officials say they've used the files to prevent hundreds of men who had been expelled for alleged sexual abuse from returning to the ranks. They've fought hard in court to keep the records from public view, saying confidentiality was needed to protect victims, witnesses and anyone falsely accused. "It is a fact that Scouts are safer because the barrier created by these files is real," Scouts Chief Executive Robert Mazzuca...

NEW YORK (AP) -- For the physician in Illinois, the attorney in Kentucky, the arts editor in Oregon, their Eagle Scout medals were treasured reminders of youthful achievement. Yet each is parting with his medal out of dismay over the Boy Scouts' recently reaffirmed policy of excluding gays. ### In contrast to Obama, Republican candidate Mitt Romney does have a public position on the Scouts' policy -- he politely disagrees with it. Back in 1994, during a political debate in Massachusetts, Romney said this: "I support the right of the Boy Scouts of America to decide what it wants to...

Earning the rank of Eagle Scout is an arduous task, requiring dedication and hard work. Returning the award was equally difficult for Steven Colella, 23, of Frederick, but it was a necessary one, he said. Colella, who is gay, made his decision in response to an announcement this month by The Boy Scouts of America affirming its policy of "not granting membership to open or avowed homosexuals." “I have no place in that organization. I knew it was the right thing to do for me,” Colella said. Colella, who has spent 18 years in the Scouts, sent a letter to...

One hundred years ago on Aug. 1, Arthur Eldred, a 17-year-old Boy Scout from Long Island, became the first person to earn the Eagle Scout rank. Eldred, tall, quiet and with a shock of dark hair, had joined scouting largely at the behest of his widowed mother, who hoped it would give some structure to his life. Yet as Eagle Scouts would continue to do throughout the next century, Eldred caught the scouting world by surprise. He was the first of an extraordinary new cohort of young men who were to prove very different from the classic 13-year-old Boy Scout...