A gay rights activist has sued the Pentagon to obtain the text of an agreement that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says bars Scouting America from promoting diversity policies.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, cites the Freedom of Information Act in an effort to compel the Pentagon to publicly disclose the final, signed memorandum of understanding between the Defense Department and Scouting America reached in February. The two organizations have given contradictory accounts of their agreement.
Mr. Hegseth, who has made a campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion policies the hallmark of his tenure as defense secretary, said that Scouting America was banning transgender people from openly participating in the group. But Scouting America said it had not changed its policies on transgender members.
“Scouting America will continue to welcome all youth into our programs, and we remain committed to creating an environment where all youth feel valued and respected,” the organization said in a statement sent to The New York Times.
“Both accounts cannot be true, and the stakes are of profound public importance,” the complaint, filed by activist James Dale, said. Mr. Dale said in an interview that he had tried for months to get the Pentagon to show him the agreement, and that the department had not done so.
Mr. Dale was the plaintiff in a 2000 Supreme Court case in which the court ruled, 5 to 4, that the Boy Scouts of America was exempt from a state law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. The organization changed its name to Scouting America in 2024.
Asked for comment on the lawsuit, the acting Pentagon press secretary, Joel Valdez, referred a Feb. 27 video on social media in which Mr. Hegseth announced the agreement. He declined a request for a copy of the agreement because, he said, “this is now a matter of active litigation.”
In his announcement, Mr. Hegseth attacked Scouting America and the changes the organization had made in recent years to become more inclusive. He complained that the Boy Scouts had “lost their way.”
“Girls were accepted,” he said. “Scouting became an organization that no longer celebrated boys.”
“They even welcomed the destructive myth of gender fluidity and transgenderism,” Mr. Hegseth said.
He then said that Scouting America had acquiesced to Pentagon demands to get rid of diversity programs in order to maintain support from the Defense Department.
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