Penna Dexter

No one should be shocked at the announcement that the Boy Scouts of America will drop the word “boy” from the name of the program that has served young boys for 102 years. Beginning in February this program will be known as Scouts BSA. We’ve known this was coming since last’s year’s announcement that the organization is opening up to girls.

The Boy Scouts — and the Girl Scouts — were created because of a belief that boys and girls are fundamentally different. These organizations were founded and operated for decades on the idea that masculine and feminine identities are worth nurturing in separate settings.

It once seemed that the Boy Scouts would escape the pressure for inclusivity, to which so many institutions were succumbing. But, as Daniel Davis writes in the Daily Signal, “The left’s crusade for inclusion will re-define and un-define every group it touches.”

The Boy Scouts has always had a faith-based component and a biblical view of human sexuality with many troops meeting in and being sponsored by churches. The LGBT left fought for gays and transgenders to be allowed into the Boy Scouts but, for years, the organization held firm against this for many good reasons.

In a landmark ruling in 2000, Boy Scouts of America vs. Dale, the United States Supreme Court affirmed the Boy Scouts’ right to set its own membership standards. But challenges to the policy never stopped. Certain packs, troops, and councils lost financial support or were evicted from facilities for refusing to admit homosexual scouts or allow openly gay leaders. The High Court’s decision protected the Scouts from anti-discrimination lawsuits, but the organization faced other pressures.

The Left began attacking corporations that donated to the Boy Scouts and the corporate leaders on its board. The Boy Scouts were now bigots as was anyone who supported the BSA’s policies. Rather than remain the wholesome organization teaching boys godly values, the Boy Scouts surrendered.

Sadly, we say goodbye.