Boy Scouts Delay Vote on Membership for Gay Youth

Rather than vote on lifting its ban on gay members, a conclave Boy Scout directors meeting in Texas Wednesday opted to put off making a decision on the controversial policy until May.

The Boy Scouts official exclusion of openly gay members was put into the spotlight last year after Ryan Andresen of Moraga publicized that the leadership of his scout troop denied him an Eagle Scout badge because he’s gay.

Here’s the announcement from the Boy Scouts:

“For 103 years, the Boy Scouts of America has been a part of the fabric of this nation, providing its youth program of character development and values-based leadership training. In the past two weeks, Scouting has received an outpouring of feedback from the American public. It reinforces how deeply people care about Scouting and how passionate they are about the organization.

After careful consideration and extensive dialogue within the Scouting family, along with comments from those outside the organization, the volunteer officers of the Boy Scouts of America’s National Executive Board concluded that due to the complexity of this issue, the organization needs time for a more deliberate review of its membership policy.

To that end, the National Executive Board directed its committees to further engage representatives of Scouting’s membership and listen to their perspectives and concerns. This will assist the officers’ work on a resolution on membership standards. The approximately 1,400 voting members of the National Council will take action on the resolution at the National Annual Meeting in May 2013.”