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In a move with major legal implications, The California Supreme Court Advisory Committee on The Code of Judicial Ethics has proposed to classify the Boy Scouts as practicing “invidious discrimination” against gays, which would end the group’s exemption to anti-discriminatory ethics rules and would prohibit judges from being affiliated with the group. “The Committee’s invitation ignores the fact that the change also encompasses other youth organizations whose membership is limited on the basis of gender, e.g., the Girl Scouts, as well as the military, which continues to practice ‘discrimination’ on the basis of gender,” wrote Catherine Short, legal director of...

New survey numbers from Rasmussen show public opinion turning slowly against the Boy Scouts. Though most Americans still view them favorably, their numbers continue in a perennial trend of decline. The national poll taken by telephone shows 59% of Americans still view the Boy Scouts at least "somewhat" favorably, this represents a decline of six percentage points from last May and a 14 point decline from February, 2012. Twenty-eight percent view the Boy Scouts unfavorably. 

SEATTLE, WA, April 2, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) have removed a Seattle-area troop leader and banned him from the organization for going public with his homosexuality, in what is thought to be the first such case since the BSA voted to allow openly homosexual youth, but not adults, to join. Scoutmaster Geoff McGrath, 49, a former Eagle Scout and leader of Troop 98 in Rainier Beach, had his BSA membership revoked Monday after an NBC News reporter contacted the organization seeking comment for a profile the network was doing on “the first openly gay Scoutmaster...

Nearly a year after announcing that it would admit gay boys but still prohibit openly gay leaders from its ranks, the Boy Scouts of America has dismissed a gay scoutmaster. The fired leader, Geoffrey McGrath, 49, is an Eagle Scout and software engineer in Seattle who is married to his longtime companion. He helped form a troop last fall, he said, because he loves scouting and because the low-income and immigrant children in his area of south Seattle had few after-school activities. The troop is sponsored by the Rainier Beach United Methodist Church, one of hundreds of “reconciling congregations” in...

ORLANDO, Fla. (BP) -- The Walt Disney Company is playing into the hands of Boy Scouts of America by cutting donations to BSA, giving the Scouts greater public leverage to accept gay leaders, Atlanta area pastor Ernest Easley said today (March 7). Disney in February joined a growing list of companies who have cut financial support to BSA because of the Scouts' ban on openly gay leaders. Such pressure will make it easier for BSA to open Scout leadership to gay men, said Easley, pastor of Roswell Street Baptist Church and chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. "Walt...

A few days ago, Disney World announced that unless Boy Scouts of America (BSA) changed its policy on openly homosexual scoutmasters – namely, they’re not allowed – by January 1, 2015, the organization would lose funding from Walt Disney.The reason is simple – Disney says BSA violates the company’s non-discrimination policy: Disney does not give money directly to the national organization or local BSA councils. However, through its VoluntEARS program, Disney allows employees to do volunteer work in exchange for cash donations to the charities of their choice.Employees taking part in the VoluntEARS program will no longer be able to...

The Walt Disney Company has notified the Boy Scouts of America that it will withdraw all funding from the organization beginning 2015 unless the BSA overturns its policy of not allowing openly gay members to be leaders. The entertainment company has a VoluntEARS program through which its employees carry out volunteer work in exchange for cash donations to the non-profits of their choice. However, Disney has now announced that the employees taking part in the program will no longer be able to submit the funds to the Boy Scouts, according to CNN. Disney's corporate website says that the company's employees...

Walt Disney World has jumped on the bandwagon of businesses pulling their funding from Boy Scouts of America, as the organization still refuses to end its ban on openly LGBT adults. Charitable contributions will no longer be made to BSA or local troops as part of Walt Disney World's "Ears For You" grant program. SNIP As the straight son of a lesbian couple, Wahls has been working to reverse the BSA's policies of discrimination and exclusion. Since its inception in 2012, Scouts for Equality has succeeded in influencing seven major corporations - including Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, Major League Soccer, Merck,...

... (Gates) has ... a new job as president of the Boy Scouts of America, starting in May. That job is just a 2-year stint ... ... As CIA director, he changed policies in 1991 to allow gay employees and oversaw the repeal of the military's "DADT" policy ... In Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, © 2014, Gates details how he pushed for time to repeal "DADT", time to survey the troops and their families, time to get an idea of how the repeal would affect the military during a period when 2 wars were being fought. Once...

"Authorities say Fleetwood Peeples, 76, confessed to abusing and taking nude photos of young boys while they were in his care in the early 1980s."

Robert McCartney slimed a Northern Virginia Catholic priest in a Sunday column in the Washington Post for his decision to end his parish's relationship with the Boy Scouts for letting openly-homosexual youth to join as scouts. McCartney blasted Father John De Celles, pastor of St. Raymond of Peñafort parish in Springfield, for his supposed "diatribes against gay behavior, liberal activists and similar targets in his weekly columns." The columnist later touted how "De Celles is in the minority" in disbanding his parish's Cub Scout pack and Boy Scout troop, and bringing in an alternative youth group that "discriminates against boys...

The state Supreme Court's ethics advisory committee wants the court to prohibit California judges from membership in the Boy Scouts because the 2.7-million-member youth organization bars gays and lesbians from becoming troop leaders.

My son was honored at a Boyscouts banquet last night. I got an email that said "There is a banquet on Friday and we would like you and "kidlett czr" to be there". We got a ride from another scout family. It was exciting whey they said they were honoring a couple scouts for top sales. My kidlett czr sold the most popcorn out of the district for boyscouts and his sales helped his troop to be the highest earning troop too! The other scout honored was the highest earning cubscout. The cubscout got a cool hat and kidlett czr...

An ex-scoutmaster who admitted to molesting his son’s teenage friends and fellow troop members for years at his Keswick home pleaded guilty to 36 felony sex crimes Wednesday in Albemarle County Circuit Court. David Brian Watkins, now 50, entered into an agreement with prosecutors that shields him from additional local or federal charges and calls for an active term of 30 years and five months in prison. The agreement “provides closure for … very promising young men who can now get on with their lives,” Assistant Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Darby Lowe said after the hearing. “The young men would have...

It was Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 6, 2013. The huge hall was overflowing, the convention sold out. Over 1,200 attendees, with many spilling out into the foyer, eagerly awaited the announcement. What would this safe, moral and non-sexualized alternative to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) look like? With a stirring introductory video came the answer: “Trail Life USA” would now endeavor to “be the premier national character development organization for young men, which produces godly and responsible husbands, fathers and citizens.” The reveal, eagerly anticipated by hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of Americans was met with rousing...

An organization formed in the wake of the Boy Scouts of America's decision to allow openly gay members officially launched on New Year's Day. Trail Life USA now has nearly 500 troops that have either entered the pre-charter process or are fully chartered and are already registering members, according to Mark Hancock, the organization's chief operating officer. Most of the troops are chartered to churches, he told The Christian Post, though some are chartered to Christian homeschool associations, camps and other organizations that agree with Trail Life's faith values. Troops are being organized in at least 42 states, Hancock says,...

Would you allow your 10-year-old son to share a tent with a 17-year-old homosexual? Yes. I don't know. No.

FULL TITLE: Boy Scouts of America will officially welcome gay members on New Year's Day as they grapple with questions about group showers and tentmates The Boy Scouts of America will accept openly gay youths starting New Year's Day, marking a historic shift that spells major changes to policies on tentmates and showers. Yet despite their be-prepared approach, BSA leaders are rooting for the change to be a non-event, comparable to another New Year's Day in 2000 when widespread fears of digital-clock chaos to start the new millennium proved unfounded. ‘My hope is there will be the same effect this...

The Boy Scouts of America will accept openly gay youths starting on New Year’s Day, a historic change that has prompted the BSA to ponder a host of potential complications—ranging from policies on tentmates and showers to whether Scouts can march in gay pride parades. Yet despite their be-prepared approach, BSA leaders are rooting for the change to be a non-event, comparable to another New Year’s Day in 2000 when widespread fears of digital-clock chaos to start the new millennium proved unfounded. “My hope is there will be the same effect this Jan. 1 as the Y2K scare,” said Brad...

Earlier this year, when the Boy Scouts of America changed its policy to allow openly gay members, a local council braced for repercussions. "We knew back in May that it might be a challenge, but we didn't know how great a challenge," said Bill Davis, executive with the Scouts' West Central Florida Council, serving Pinellas and West Pasco counties. "So far, the biggest fallout is the financial loss. We need about $75,000 to balance our budget this year." Also feeling the wrath of those who disapprove of the Boy Scouts' decision is the Gulf Ridge Council, which serves eight counties,...