The Boy Scouts’ New York chapter has hired the nation’s first openly gay Eagle Scout as an employee in defiance of the organization’s ban on openly gay adults. Photograph: Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s war on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies will reportedly result in the Pentagon turning its back on Scouting America, once known as the Boy Scouts or Scouting
According to a leaked proposal obtained by NPR, Hegseth is unhappy with the organization and wants his Department of War to end a 100-year relationship, which would leave officials running the annual National Jamboree scrambling to fill the void.
NPR reported that Hegseth believes the organization, “once endorsed by President Theodore Roosevelt, no longer supports the future of American boys,” and is currently designed to "attack boy-friendly spaces.”
The leaked document, which was prepared for members of Congress, proposes ”the Pentagon no longer provide medical and logistical aid to the National Jamboree, which brings in as many as 20,000 scouts to a remote site in West Virginia. It also states that the military will no longer allow Scout troops to meet at military installations in the U.S. and abroad.”
According to NPR, a congressional law has long authorized lending “trucks, ambulances and medical teams,” to the Jamboree, considering it a ”training exercise and an opportunity to recruit highly motivated, civic-minded kids" — however the law does allow the defense secretary to deny support if they feel it would be “detrimental to national security."
In the memo, Hegseth complained that the organization no longer cultivates “masculine values,” with NPR noting the current Pentagon chief complained about the Scouts when he was a Fox News host, telling viewers, “The Boy Scouts has been cratering itself for quite some time. This is an institution the left didn't control. They didn't want to improve it. They wanted to destroy it or dilute it into something that stood for nothing."
The report also noted Hegseth was never a scout, but did participate in a church youth group that focused “on memorizing Bible verses.”
“The potential impact is causing friction at the Pentagon. In one memo sent to the department's Undersecretary for Policy Elbridge Colby, Navy Secretary John Phelan warns the proposed new policy might be ‘too restrictive.’ Up to a third of the Navy's officers in training, he writes, have some scouting background,” the report added.