The Boy Scouts of America announced today that they are actively considering lifting the ban on gay members in its organization. “The policy change under discussion would allow the religious, civic, or educational organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting to determine how to address this issue,” Deron Smith, director of the Boys Scouts national organization, said in a statement to USA TODAY.
It was just six months ago that the Boy Scouts of America affirmed their commitment to their decades old gay ban policy. The policy stated that the Boy Scouts could “not grant membership to individuals who are open or avowed homosexuals” that included members and Scout leaders.
The organization had been under fired from numerous civil rights and gay adovacy organizations.
Boy Scouts is one of the largest private boys organizations in the country. In 1990, when the Boy Scouts of America recognized that the population growth among Hispanic Americans had been increasing at a fast rate, the BSA implemented the Hispanic Emphasis program.
Latinos account for only 3 percent of the Boy Scout’s estimated 2.9 million members.
