Scouting America, the organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts, will make several concessions to the Pentagon — including getting rid of diversity, equity and inclusion programs and limiting participation to those who join in their biological gender — to retain its longtime relationship with the U.S. military, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday.
In exchange, the group — for now — will be able to keep its name and girls will still be able to join. However, Hegseth said that Scouting America will remain under Defense Department scrutiny for the next six months, at which time officials will “vigorously review progress and decide whether or not to continue our support.”
“Ideally,” I believe the Boy Scouts should go back to being the Boy Scouts, as originally founded, a group that develops boys into men. Maybe someday,” Hegseth said in a social media post announcing the agreement.
Hegseth’s announcement was less clear about the agreement’s impact on transgender children who wish to join the Scouts or remain in their Scouting troops. In his video statement, Hegseth said that Scouting America will “modify its policy to make clear that membership will be based solely on biological sex at birth and not gender identity,” and he assailed the organization for having “welcomed the destructive myth of gender fluidity and transgenderism to infiltrate their membership.”
“Any application will have only two sex designations, male and female, and the application must match the applicant’s birth certificate,” he said. “Scouting will also make clear that biological boys and girls will not be allowed to occupy or share intimate spaces together — toilets, showers, tents, anywhere like that.”
In a statement to The Washington Post, Scouting America said that children have always joined according to their biological gender and that no modification was necessary on that issue.
“Scouting has accepted transgender youth since 2017 and will continue to work with families to ensure transgender youth feel welcome in Scouting,” it said. “Scouting has extensive safeguarding policies and procedures in place to ensure the safety and comfort of youth members in all situations.”
Hegseth had used the threat of pulling all military support from the group — including kicking Scout troops off of military bases — to force it to make changes that better align with his personal views and those of the Trump administration.
Hegseth’s demands for change were made months before Scouting America was to celebrate Jamboree, a 10-day summit scheduled for July that is expected to draw more than 15,000 Scouts from throughout the country to West Virginia. It’s held every four years, and Scout troops hold popcorn sales and other fundraisers to be able to attend.
In the past, upward of 500 National Guard personnel, military reservists and active-duty service members have provided equipment and logistical support for Jamboree. The loss of that support could have put the event in jeopardy.
Scouting America has long been an important recruiting pipeline for the military services and a means for military personnel serving overseas to find support for their children.
In a statement, Scouting America said the arrangement it has reached with the Pentagon will strengthen those ties by “waiving registration fees for military families, launching a new merit badge focused on military service and veterans, and reinforcing our commitment to Scouting’s foundational ideas: leadership, character, duty to God, duty to country and service.”
But Hegseth said the Pentagon will be watching. Since becoming defense secretary a year ago, he has waged an intense campaign to eliminate DEI initiatives from the military while putting a greater focus on religion in many aspects of service members’ daily life.
As a Fox News personality before joining the Trump administration, Hegseth had sharply criticized the Scouts, denouncing the group’s name change and lamenting that girls were allowed to join.
In his online video Friday, Hegseth said the Scouts had allowed standards to be lowered and merit “destroyed” in favor of an “insidious, radical, woke ideology that is anti-America and anti-American.”
A former Scouting troop leader who contacted The Washington Post after Friday’s announcement said he was appalled at the organization’s capitulation.
“The Scout Law says a Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind and brave. There is nothing brave about caving to political coercion. There is nothing kind about telling transgender children they are not welcome. There is nothing friendly about dismantling the programs designed to make Scouting inclusive for all young people,” said the troop leader from New York, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisal.
His older children had been both Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, but his family will not allow the younger ones to join after this decision, he said.
“My wife and I were literally discussing when our 4-year-old should start attending Cubs. We won’t let him anywhere near it now,” the former troop leader said.
Scouting America is the latest target of Hegseth’s attack on institutions that are either a part of the Department of Defense, such as the military service academies, or peripheral to it, like the Scouts, as he seeks total alignment with a political agenda that eliminates any celebration of diversity. He has also fired top military officers, including a disproportionate number of women and minorities, in some cases citing their support for DEI programs.
In its statement, Scouting America said that during negotiations with the Pentagon, the organization’s leaders “held firm on the core commitments that define us,” adding, “Our primary objective throughout this engagement was to maintain support for families who depend on us.”
correctionA subheadline on a previous version of this article incorrectly said that Scouting America would deny entry to transgender children, based on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement. The group said that transgender youth will still be allowed to join.
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