MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Boy Scouts of America’s head honcho Robert Gates made a surprising announcement on Thursday.
He said the group needed to back off on its ban of gay scouts leaders.
The announcement came just one day after the Girl Scouts made it clear they proudly accepted transgender girls.
Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have similar messages and have often been seen as pillars of the community.
But their policies surrounding gay, lesbian and transgender members were not quite the same.
“We have always been proud of our inclusive relationships with everyone,” Jenny Jones with Heart of the South Girl Scouts explained.
Jones said it’s been that way for years.
The topic of transgender members has come under scrutiny lately, but the girls said they weren’t changing their tune.
“Girls Scouts has always been a place for girls, no matter what,” said Jones.
Will Batts with the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center said this was old news.
“We’ve already dealt with this,” he said. “We’ve already moved on. It’s working fine.”
Batts said it’s time for the Boy Scouts to follow suit, and they’ve got the right leader to do it.
“Robert Gates has overseen the military moving on beyond ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’. I mean that’s huge right? I think the Boy Scout can do this,” Batts added.
Gates served as the Secretary of Defense and was in office when the ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy became a thing of the past.
Gay community spokesmen believed the ban on gay leaders needed to do the same.
No official vote has been scheduled just yet.
Transgender figures have taken pop culture by storm in the last year.
Laverne Cox garnered attention for her role on the popular show Orange is the New Black.
She played a transgender woman and lived that role in real life.
Bruce Jenner also made waves when he publicly announced he was transitioning to a woman.
Batts compared him to Magic Johnson’s role in the HIV movement.
He went on to say that until they made the move to welcome gay leaders, they were forcing men, like him, to live a lie.
“They’ve had to be dishonest and they had to lie and pretend to be something they aren’t which is not healthy,” he said.
