I got the heads up on this via Twitter:
BEST FRIDAY NEWS DUMP EVER RT @mckaycoppins: Whoa. RT @reutersus: Boy Scouts to end ban on gay members: spokesperson reut.rs/11lnjVg
— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) April 19, 2013
Here’s the article:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Boy Scouts of America called to end a long-standing ban on openly gay members, a spokesman said on Friday, but the organization’s board must still vote in May on whether to ratify the resolution.
If the vote is approved, “no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone,” Deron Smith, the organization’s spokesman, told Reuters.
Smith noted that the decision drew from three months of research, surveys and discussions and was “among the most complex and challenging issues facing the BSA and society today.”
The deliberations over whether to admit openly gay and lesbian members to the Boy Scouts has divided organizers, polarized its corporate and religious sponsors, and placed the group at the center of a nationwide debate over gay rights over the past two years.
I don’t agree with the “most complex” bit, at least as it pertains to the BSA. Still, I can understand why they would say that from their perspective. Either way, good on the BSA.