Scouting America to alter policies including biological sex requirement to maintain military support, Hegseth says

Scouting America will change several of its policies at the urging of the Pentagon, including one targeting transgender youths, if it wants to keep the U.S. military’s support, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday.

Some of the changes mirror what the organization suggested to the Department of Justice earlier this year, which included discontinuing its Citizenship in Society merit badge and introducing a Military Service merit badge, the Pentagon said.

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

Hegseth said in a video posted on X that he had been “seriously considering” ending all Scouting America support after the organization “lost their way” and became “greatly wounded” as diversity, equity and inclusion efforts “crept in” and “the focus on God as the ruler of the universe was watered down to include openness to humanism and Earth-centered pagan religions.”

Hegseth said the Pentagon will “vigorously review” the changes the organization has made over the past six months and will cease supporting Scouting America if it fails to comply.

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

In a statement released Friday, Scoutng America said it is “proud to uphold our longstanding commitment to military families across the globe through a renewed, strengthened partnership” with the Pentagon.

“Today we are moving forward with implementing new programmatic elements that deliver on that mission: waiving registration fees for military families, launching a new merit badge focused on military service and veterans, and reinforcing our commitment to Scouting’s foundational ideas: leadership, character, duty to God, duty to country and service,” the group said.

Scouting America added that it would maintain its name and will continue “our service to the more than 200,000 girls who participate in our programs.” 

The organization began allowing 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 as of 2018 and into the flagship Boy Scout program — renamed Scouts BSA — in 2019. As of May 2024, more than 6,000 girls had earned the coveted Eagle Scout rank.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon said it was reviewing its relationship with the organization, calling its DEI efforts “unacceptable” and “counter to the values of this administration.”

The Pentagon previously said it and Scouting America were nearing an agreement to continue their partnership if the organization “rapidly implements the common-sense, core value reforms.”

“Scouting America remains far from perfect, but they have firmly committed to a return to core principles,” the statement said. “Back to God and country—immediately!”

The U.S. military and the Boy Scouts have had longtime ties, including the military providing logistical support for the National Boy Scout Jamboree since its inception in 1937.

The military also has a long history of sponsoring Scout troops and activities on U.S. military bases and has maintained a strong relationship with the Eagle Scouts, whose members often enlist in the armed forces.

In a statement last year, Scouting America raised concerns following a report from NPR that the Pentagon planned to cut support for Scouting programs on military bases as well as for the National Jamboree and would eliminate increases in pay grade for Eagle Scouts who enlist.

The Scouts told Hegseth in January that after hearing his suggestions, they had come up with a plan for him to review, which included discontinuing their Citizenship in Society merit badge and introducing a Military Service merit badge, waiving registration fees for military personnel and holding a ceremony to rededicate themselves to leadership, duty to God, duty to country and service, besides dissolving their DEI board committee.

Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America achieved a vaunted status in the U.S. over the decades, with pinewood derbies, the Scout Oath and Eagle Scouts becoming part of the lexicon.

Lore has it that American businessman William Boyce was inspired to start the organization after he became lost in the fog in London and was guided to his destination by a youth who turned down a tip, telling Boyce that because he was a scout (they were formed in Britain in 1907), he couldn’t accept money for a good deed.

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

In 1990, the organization expelled an Eagle Scout who had become an assistant scoutmaster after discovering he was co-president of his university’s gay and lesbian organization. He sued in 1992, alleging discrimination and lost at the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the Scouts could maintain membership and leadership criteria that excluded gay people.

Conservative groups rallied around the Boy Scouts, but scores of institutions curtailed support as the ban continued. The ban ended in 2013. In 2015, the organization ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout 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 boys-only programs. That came after an 8-year-old was asked to leave his Scout troop in New Jersey after parents and leaders found out he was transgender.

The Boy Scouts also faced a flood of sexual abuse claims and sought bankruptcy protection in 2020, when it had been named in about 275 lawsuits and had told insurers it was aware of another 1,400 claims.

In 2023, a judge upheld the $2.4 billion bankruptcy plan, allowing the organization to keep operating while compensating more than 80,000 men who filed claims saying they were sexually abused while in scouting.

Last year, Scouting America’s President and CEO Roger Krone acknowledged some backlash to the rebrand but described the overall response as a positive one that generated wider interest.

“The fact that we were going with a more kind of gender-neutral name, a lot of people kind of wanted to know more about it,” Krone said.

The organization said it saw a gain in membership of about 16,000 new scouts, less than 2% from the prior year. The organization said at the time that it had just over 1 million members.