Transgender youth are targeted in Scouting America changes pushed by the Pentagon

WASHINGTON (AP) – Scouting America will change several policies at the Pentagon’s urging, including one targeting transgender youth, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday as he campaigned against military support for diversity, equality and inclusion efforts.

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Some of the changes mirror what the organization proposed to the Pentagon in January, including discontinuing its Citizenship in Society badge, introducing a Military Service badge and waiving registration fees for the children of military personnel.

Under Hegseth, the Pentagon has taken aim at the military’s partnership with Scouting America, denying its historic 2024 renaming of the Boy Scouts of America and other changes in recent years that it sees as part of “woke culture” efforts it wants to stamp out.

In a video posted on X, Hegseth said Scouting America will require its members to use their “biological sex at birth and not gender identity.” He said applications will only list options for male and female and the one checked must match the applicant’s birth certificate. The group will make it clear that opposite-sex youth assigned at birth cannot share bathrooms, tents or other similar spaces, he said.

Hegseth said the Pentagon will “vigorously review” the changes Scouting America has made in six months and end its support for the organization if it does not comply.

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“We hope it doesn’t happen, but it could,” said Hegseth. “Ideally, I believe the Boy Scouts should go back to the Boy Scouts as originally founded, a group that develops boys into men. Maybe one day.”

Scouts retain new name and female membership

In a statement Friday, Scouting America did not name the policy change aimed at transgender youth, but noted it was necessary to comply with an executive order from President Donald Trump targeting DEI programs.

The Irving, Texas-based organization also noted that it kept its new name and “preserved our service to the more than 200,000 girls who have participated in our programs.”

The organization began admitting gay youth in 2013, ended a blanket ban on gay adult leaders in 2015, and announced in 2017 that it would accept transgender students. It began accepting girls as Cub Scouts from 2018 and into the flagship Boy Scout program, renamed Scouts BSA, in 2019.

Scouting America said the policy changes deepen the organization’s century-old partnership with the military, which has included Scouts meeting on or near military installations in the U.S. and abroad.

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“Scouting America is one of the most trusted pipelines to the U.S. Army our country has ever known,” the organization added. “Scouts are significantly more likely to serve in uniform than the general population. Eagle Scouts are heavily represented in ROTC programs, service academies and military leadership tracks.”

Pentagon threatened to pull support

Hegseth’s other anti-DEI efforts ranged from ending all “woke” military training at Harvard to claiming that the independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes would no longer include “woke diversions.” He rolled out the move with Scouting America on Friday as tensions rose with Iran and the Trump administration considered possible military action after amassing the largest force of US warships and aircraft in the Middle East in decades.

The Pentagon said earlier this month that it was reviewing its relationship with Scouting America, claiming it had “lost its way” in many ways and calling the organization’s DEI efforts “unacceptable.”

“Scouting America’s leadership has made decisions that conflict with the values ​​of this administration,” the Feb. 6 statement said, “including an embrace of DEL and other social justice, gender-fluid ideological positions.”

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The Pentagon earlier said it and Scouting America were nearing an agreement to continue their partnership if the organization “quickly implements common sense, core values ​​reforms.”

The U.S. Army and the Boy Scouts have had long ties, including the Army providing logistical support for the National Boy Scout Jamboree since its inception in 1937. The Army has also maintained a strong relationship with the Eagle Scouts, whose members often coordinate.

In a statement last year, Scouting America expressed concern following a report by NPR that the Pentagon plans to cut support for Scouting programs on military bases as well as for the National Jamboree and will eliminate pay grade increases for Eagle Scouts who enroll.

The group told Hegseth last month that after hearing his suggestions, they had come up with a plan, which, in addition to the badge changes, included holding a ceremony to rededicate itself to leadership, duty to God, duty to country and service, as well as the dissolution of its DEI board of directors.

Cultural forces and significant changes

Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America have achieved illustrious status in the US over the decades, with pinewood derbies, the Scout Oath and Eagle Scouts becoming part of the lexicon.

Since then, the organization has faced controversies and significant changes.

In a 1992 lawsuit by an assistant scoutmaster who was suspended over his sexual orientation, the U.S. Supreme Court said the Boy Scouts could maintain membership and leadership criteria that excluded gay people.

The ban ended in 2013. Two years later, the organization ended its general ban on gay adult leaders, while allowing church-sponsored scouting units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons. In 2017, the Boy Scouts announced that they would allow transgender children who identify as boys to enroll in their all-boys programs.

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The Boy Scouts also faced a flood of sexual abuse claims and sought bankruptcy protection in the 2020s. In 2023, a judge upheld the $2.4 billion bankruptcy plan that allows the organization to continue operating while compensating more than 80,000 men who filed claims saying they were sexually abused while scouting.

Last year, Roger Krone, president and CEO of Scouting America, acknowledged some backlash to the rebrand, but described the overall response as a positive one that generated increased interest.

“The fact that we’re going with a more gender-neutral name, a lot of people wanted to know more about that,” Krone said.
The organization said it saw an increase in membership of about 16,000 new scouts, less than 2% from the previous year. At the time, the organization said it had just over 1 million members.

Stengle reports from Dallas. Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin in Washington and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.