Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Friday that Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts, agreed to abandon its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and ensure private spaces for males and females.
Hegseth said the Pentagon would continue providing support to Scouting America contingent on its compliance with demands to drop woke policies. He added that the department would yank funding if the organization did not follow through on its commitment to end DEI policies.
“After 2012, however, the Boy Scouts lost their way, and a once great organization became gravely wounded. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) crept in. The name was changed to ‘Scouting America.’ Girls were accepted,” Hegseth said in a video message. “The focus on God as the ruler of the universe was watered down to include openness to humanism and Earth-centered pagan religions. Scouting became an organization that no longer supported and celebrated boys.”
The Department of War has officially put Scouting America on notice.
It’s time to get back to basics — and DoW is leading the charge. pic.twitter.com/EnY9mvaFLX
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) February 27, 2026
Historically, the department has supported the Scouts by providing personnel and access to equipment, installations, facilities, and office space. Hegseth said the changes adopted by the organization since 2012 “jeopardized the relationship with this department and I was very seriously considering ending our support of scouting altogether.”
Hegseth said Scouting America agreed to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order on “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” which bars federal funding for organizations that promote DEI. He described the move as one of several “key reforms” the group had agreed to implement.
He said the organization would be “reviewing and replacing politicized, divisive, and discriminatory language throughout the organization’s programs and all publications. No more DEI. Zero.”
Hegseth added that the organization would discontinue a DEI-focused merit badge and introduce a new military service badge. He said Scouting America would also clarify its policies to ensure that showers, tents, and other private spaces were kept sex-specific.
“Scouting America will modify its policy to make clear that membership will be based solely on biological sex at birth and not gender identity,” Hegseth said. “That means that the application, any application, will have only two sex designations, male and female, and the application must match the applicant’s birth certificate. Scouting will also make clear that biological boys and girls will not be allowed to occupy or share intimate spaces together.”
In a statement to The Daily Wire, Scouting America said it had engaged in dialogue with the Trump administration to comply with the DEI executive order, but added that it would keep its current name and emphasized that girls would still be welcome.
“Over several months, we engaged in dialogue with Department leadership to align on how we could deepen our service to military families, while making programmatic updates to comply with Executive Order 14173,” the organization said. “Today we are moving forward with implementing new programmatic elements that deliver on that mission: 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. ”
Hegseth said that the Department of War would review Scouting America’s compliance with the agreement and reassess its support in six months to determine whether to continue providing funding.
Earlier this month, Hegseth gave an ultimatum to Scouting America, telling the organization to ditch DEI or lose support from the Department of War. Before rebranding to Scouting America, the organization was known as the Boy Scouts for more than a century. Hegseth said he would like to see the organization return to its original name.
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