The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) are welcoming their inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts on Sunday, the first since the organization began accepting girls in 2019.
Approximately 1,000 girls were slated to be a part of the first class, <a href="https://abc13.com/10359255/?ex_cid=TA_KTRK_TW&amp;taid=6032a45718b9b20001c57774&amp;utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&amp;utm_medium=trueAnthem&amp;utm_source=twitter">according</a> to The Associated Press. Attaining the rank of Eagle Scout requires at least 21 merit badges, and Isabella Tunney, who is one of the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/30/us/boy-scouts-transgender-membership/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new female Eagle Scouts</a>, earned each of the 137 badges possible.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Witness history TOMORROW (2/21) with the entire BSA community! We’re celebrating the inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts during a special Facebook Live at 8 pm ET / 7pm CT. RSVP: <a href="https://t.co/v3TLxjktAl">https://t.co/v3TLxjktAl</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BeTheChange?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BeTheChange</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EagleScouts?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EagleScouts</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FemaleEagleScouts?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FemaleEagleScouts</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NESA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NESA</a> <a href="https://t.co/H64wlNRd8o">pic.twitter.com/H64wlNRd8o</a>
&mdash; Boy Scouts &#8211; BSA (@boyscouts) <a href="https://twitter.com/boyscouts/status/1363205284739624961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 20, 2021</a></blockquote>
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“The quarantine helped a lot,” Tunney recounted to the AP. “I had a lot of time to spare.”
Tunney told the AP about how she always wanted to join the Boy Scouts, like her older brother. When they began accepting girls in 2018, she seized the chance to join.
&#8220;When the Boy Scouts opened up to girls, I was so excited to get the opportunity to participate myself,” she said.
Jenn Hancock, the BSA&#8217;s national chair for programs, said in a statement to the AP: &#8220;This is a powerful moment for these young women, for all Eagle Scouts, and for our nation. People recognize Eagle Scouts as individuals of the highest caliber, and for the first time, that title isn&#8217;t limited by gender.&#8221;
Among the badges would-be Eagle Scouts now have to earn is a &#8220;diversity and inclusion&#8221; badge. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/letter-boy-scouts-introduce-black-lives-matter-inspired-diversity-and-inclusion-badge-will-be-required-to-become-eagle-scout" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>:
<blockquote>In a letter posted Monday, the National Executive Committee for the Boy Scouts of America announced a new badge related to “diversity and inclusion” in conjunction with the far-left, anti-cop Black Lives Matter movement.
The new badge will be a prerequisite to becoming an Eagle Scout, according to the committee.</blockquote>
The Girl Scouts recently alleged the Boy Scouts were stealing recruits from them. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/girl-scouts-accuse-boy-scouts-of-poaching-recruits-boy-scouts-accuse-girl-scouts-of-starting-ground-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>:
<blockquote>The Girl Scouts of the United States of America claimed in court documents that the Boy Scouts of America are engaging in a “highly damaging” recruitment war that is poaching potential members. In response, the Boy Scouts, which is currently rebranding to become Scouts BSA and allow girls to join, claimed the Girl Scouts has launched a “ground war.”
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/12/27/girl-scouts-accuse-boy-scouts-of-poaching-new-recruits/">reported</a> that the feud between the two organizations began years ago when the Cub Scouts announced that girls would be accepted into the organization starting in 2018. In 2019, the Boy Scouts announced it would rebrand to become a gender-neutral organization and also accept girls.</blockquote>
In 2019, the Girl Scouts sued the Boy Scouts for dropping gender-specific language from their name. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/girl-scouts-suing-boy-scouts-over-leaving-boy-out-hank-berrien" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a> at the time:
<blockquote>The Girl Scouts of the USA is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/07/us/girl-boy-scouts-scli-intl/index.html%20'">suing</a> the Boy Scouts of America for their plans to drop the word “Boy” from their name in 2019. The complaint the Girl Scouts filed stated that the Boy Scouts do not have the right to use “scouts” or “scouting,” and the Girl Scouts brand and their programs will be damaged if the Boy Scouts follow through with their plans. It also asserted, “Only GSUSA has the right to use the Girl Scouts and Scouts trademarks with leadership development services for girls.”</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/girl-scouts-accuse-boy-scouts-of-poaching-recruits-boy-scouts-accuse-girl-scouts-of-starting-ground-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Girl Scouts Accuse Boy Scouts Of Poaching Recruits. Boy Scouts Accuse Girl Scouts Of Starting ‘Ground War’</a>

Inaugural Class Off Female Eagle Scouts Recognized By Boy Scouts Of America

Boy Scouts Welcome First Class Of Girl Eagle Scouts

Boy Scouts

Girl Scouts

The Girl Scouts of the United States of America claimed in court documents that the Boy Scouts of America are engaging in a “highly damaging” recruitment war that is poaching potential members. In response, the Boy Scouts, which is currently rebranding to become Scouts BSA and allow girls to join, claimed the Girl Scouts has launched a “ground war.”
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/12/27/girl-scouts-accuse-boy-scouts-of-poaching-new-recruits/">reported</a> that the feud between the two organizations began years ago when the Cub Scouts announced that girls would be accepted into the organization starting in 2018. In 2019, the Boy Scouts announced it would rebrand to become a gender-neutral organization and also accept girls.
The Girl Scouts sued, alleging trademark infringement. Last month, the Post reported, the Boy Scouts filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it was “utterly meritless.” On Thursday, the Girl Scouts responded to the filing, claiming the Boy Scouts have been poaching potential recruits by using the terms “scout, scouts, scouting, scouts BSA and scout me in” partially helped cause an “explosion of confusion” in recruitment, which was “extraordinary and highly damaging to Girl Scouts.”
“As a result of Boy Scouts’ infringement, parents have mistakenly enrolled their daughters in Boy Scouts thinking it was Girl Scouts,” the filing on behalf of the Girl Scouts says. The attorneys for the Girl Scouts wrote such confusion didn’t occur prior to the Boy Scouts changing their name to Scouts BSA and started allowing girls to join.
Included in the Girl Scouts’ response is evidence of “rampant instances of confusion and mistaken instances of association between Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts,” wherein the Boy Scouts had to return registration fees to parents who thought they were signing their daughters up for the Girl Scouts. The Post, however, noted that the fees were returned in “less than a tenth of local Scout councils.”
The Girl Scouts claimed in court that the Boy Scouts said the confusion was due to isolated incidents of mistaken marketing, an argument the Girl Scouts dismissed.
“According to Boy Scouts, blame for the rampant marketplace confusion lies at everyone’s feet but its own,” the girl scouts wrote in their filing.
The Boy Scouts responded to the latest filing in a statement, accusing the Girl Scouts of starting a “ground war.”
“To imply that confusion is a prevailing reason for their choice is not only inaccurate – with no legally admissible instance of this offered to date in the case – but it is also dismissive of the decisions of more than 120,000 girls and young women who have joined Cub Scouts or Scouts BSA since the programs became available to them,” the statement said.
The Post reported that membership for both organizations has declined in recent years, with the Boy Scouts reporting 2.2 million members, a third as many as its record membership in 1972, while the Girl Scouts have just 1.7 million members, down from its highest membership year in 2003. The BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55460888">reported</a> that the Girl Scouts accused the Boy Scouts of accepting girls to increase its declining membership.

Girl and Boy Scouts

Girl Scouts Accuse Boy Scouts Of Poaching Recruits. Boy Scouts Accuse Girl Scouts Of Starting ‘Ground War’

Lawsuit

In a letter posted Monday, the National Executive Committee for the Boy Scouts of America announced a new badge related to &#8220;diversity and inclusion&#8221; in conjunction with the far-left, anti-cop Black Lives Matter movement.
The new badge will be a prerequisite to becoming an Eagle Scout, according to the committee.
Though Black Lives Matter is clearly political, calling for the national defunding of police departments and the disruption of the nuclear family, the Scouts claim the move is apolitical and about mere anti-racism.
&#8220;We condemn the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and all those who are not named but are equally important,&#8221; the letter to scout families reads. &#8220;We hear the anguish, feel the heartbreak, and join the country’s resolve to do better.&#8221;
&#8220;The Boy Scouts of America stands with Black families and the Black community because we believe that Black Lives Matter,&#8221; the executive committee emphasized. &#8220;This is not a political issue; it is a human rights issue and one we all have a duty to address.&#8221;
&#8220;That is why, as an organization, we commit to [i]ntroducing a specific diversity and inclusion merit badge that will be required for the rank of Eagle Scout,&#8221; the letter continues. &#8220;It will build on components within existing merit badges, including the American Cultures and Citizenship in the Community merit badges, which require Scouts to learn about and engage with other groups and cultures to increase understanding and spur positive action.&#8221;
The Scouts will also be &#8220;[r]equiring diversity and inclusion training for all BSA employees starting July 1,&#8221; and &#8220;[c]onducting a review of property names, events, and insignia, in partnership with local councils, to build on and enhance the organization’s nearly 30-year ban on use of the Confederate flag and to ensure that symbols of oppression are not in use today or in the future.&#8221;
The organization noted that these moves are only their &#8220;next steps but certainly not our last.&#8221;
Read the full letter, below (via <a href="https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2020/06/15/irving-texas-boy-scouts-stand-black-lives-matter/">CBS 11 News</a>):
<blockquote>Dear Scouting family,
As our country reckons with racial injustice, we all must consider our role and our failures and commit to meaningful action.
The twelve points of the Scout Law that define a Scout are all important, but at this moment, we are called on to be brave. Brave means taking action because it is the right thing to do and being an upstander even when it may prompt criticism from some. We realize we have not been as brave as we should have been because, as Scouts, we must always stand for what is right and take action when the situation demands it.
There is no place for racism – not in Scouting and not in our communities. Racism will not be tolerated.
We condemn the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and all those who are not named but are equally important. We hear the anguish, feel the heartbreak, and join the country’s resolve to do better.
The Boy Scouts of America stands with Black families and the Black community because we believe that Black Lives Matter. This is not a political issue; it is a human rights issue and one we all have a duty to address. 
That is why, as an organization, we commit to:
Introducing a specific diversity and inclusion merit badge that will be required for the rank of Eagle Scout. It will build on components within existing merit badges, including the American Cultures and Citizenship in the Community merit badges, which require Scouts to learn about and engage with other groups and cultures to increase understanding and spur positive action.
Reviewing every element of our programs to ensure diversity and inclusion are engrained at every level for participants and volunteers by applying a standard that promotes racial equality and denounces racism, discrimination, inequality and injustice.
Requiring diversity and inclusion training for all BSA employees starting July 1 and taking immediate action toward introducing a version for volunteers in the coming months.
Conducting a review of property names, events and insignia, in partnership with local councils, to build on and enhance the organization’s nearly 30-year ban on use of the Confederate flag and to ensure that symbols of oppression are not in use today or in the future.
These are our next steps but certainly not our last.
We will also continue to listen more, learn more and do more to promote a culture in which every person feels that they belong, are respected, and are valued in Scouting, in their community, and across America.
As a movement, we are committed to working together with our employees, volunteers, youth members, and communities so we can all become a better version of ourselves and continue to prepare young people to become the leaders of character our communities and our country need to heal and grow.
Yours in Scouting,
The Boy Scouts of America, National Executive Committee
Dan Ownby – National Chair
Roger Mosby – President and CEO
Scott Sorrels – National Commissioner
Devang Desai
Jack Furst
Skip Oppenheimer
Nathan Rosenberg
Alison Schuler
Michael Sears
Thear Suzuki
Brad Tilden
Jim Turley</blockquote>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Boy Scouts Of America Could Remove Ban On Gay Adults

LETTER: Boy Scouts Introduce Black Lives Matter Inspired ‘Diversity And Inclusion’ Badge, Will Be Required To Become Eagle Scout

Black Lives Matter

Diversity

The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts who have traditionally placed American flags on the graves of veterans at veterans’ cemeteries on Memorial Day have been barred from doing so because of the coronavirus crisis.
The Scouts cannot perform their acts of honor because the Department of Veteran&#8217;s Affairs has banned public events at the sites, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/boy-scouts-banned-memorial-day-coronavirus-veterans">Fox News</a> reports, adding, “On Long Island, N.Y., where more than 500,000 veterans are buried at two national military cemeteries, there are demands for the VA to reconsider and rescind the ban.”
Suffolk County executive Steve Bellone told Fox News, &#8220;If we can&#8217;t figure out a way to make sure we are placing flags at their graves to honor them, then something is seriously wrong … What we&#8217;re asking the VA to do is, rather than have a blanket policy across the country, allow the national cemeteries at the local level, to make this determination in conjunction with the local health department. We will take the responsibility to say that this flag placement plan meets the state and national guidelines but give us that opportunity to do it, allow us to honor our fallen heroes.” He continued, &#8220;We just commemorated VE Day, this is the generation that lived through the adversity of the great depression, they won World War Two. What is it going to say about our generation if we can&#8217;t figure out a way to honor the greatest generation by placing flags at their graves on Memorial Day?&#8221;
18-year-old Eagle Scout Kieran Monaghan told Fox News, &#8220;It&#8217;s definitely a very emotional, kind of moving experience. Personally, my Dad is a veteran. He was deployed in Iraq for a year. It&#8217;s good to be able to pay our respects to our fallen heroes, it&#8217;s important to me, it&#8217;s important to the Boy Scouts, it&#8217;s important to the community and it’s something that I would hate to see go.” He added, &#8220;It is understandable to a point, but I don&#8217;t think that it is unreasonable to be able to put a plan together to be able to still accomplish the same thing we have done year after year, still following social distancing guidelines, having everybody masked up, with gloves on. It&#8217;s definitely doable.”
The U.S. National Cemetery Administration cited the “national emergency” as the reason that “VA national cemeteries will not be hosting public Memorial Day events,&#8221; including “mass placement of gravesite flags,” adding, &#8220;families and community members are welcome to visit national cemeteries throughout Memorial Day weekend and place individual flags on graves to honor friends and family. We ask that all visitors adhere to CDC, state and local health, safety, and travel guidelines.&#8221;
Michael Freeman, associate editor of Boys’ Life, Scouting and Eagles’ Call magazines <a href="https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2018/05/22/honoring-veterans-with-gravesite-flags-memorial-day/">advised</a> Scouts in 2018:
<blockquote>Always coordinate with the cemetery’s director when planning to volunteer. The director will know how much help is needed and where that help should be directed. The director might need flags placed at grave sites or along the main entrance, often referred to as an “avenue of flags,” or might not need any help at all.
&#8230; flags placed at graves should be erected in a uniform matter, usually one foot, centered and in front of the headstone or grave marker.
&#8230; For an “avenue of flags” display, flagpoles should be inserted and secured in an in-ground receptacle. The flags shouldn’t interfere with traffic … For all flag ceremonies, remember to follow the rules of <a href="https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2015/09/24/10-things-know-flag-etiquette/">flag etiquette</a>. These include never letting the flag touch the ground and ensuring flags are in excellent condition.
&#8230; Volunteering at a cemetery for Memorial Day is a great way to teach Scouts about national and local history, community service and patriotism. It can also be an opportunity to fulfill service hours and rank requirements, but more importantly, it’s a chance to impart a sense of respect for those who have died for our freedoms.
Remind Scouts to follow cemetery rules, refrain from rowdiness and to stay on designated paths</blockquote>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Memorial Day Celebrations

Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts Barred From Placing Flags At Veterans’ Cemeteries On Memorial Day

COVID

Veterans

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday morning following &#8220;decades&#8221; of sexual abuse claims and fears that a class action lawsuit filed by alleged sexual assault victims could leave the organization destitute.
<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/boy-scouts-of-america-files-for-bankkruptcy-after-sex-abuse-lawsuits">Fox News reports</a> that the declaration, filed in Delaware where the Boy Scouts are incorporated is designed to halt &#8220;the hundreds of lawsuits the BSA is facing that allege sexual misconduct by people within the 110-year-old organization over the years.&#8221; Many of the lawsuits are new, but reference decades-old incidents, filed following several states&#8217; decision to drop the statute of limitations on sexual abuse claims so that victims could sue not just the Boy Scouts, but several religious organizations, including the Catholic Church.
One class action suit, based in Washington, has more than 300 plaintiffs from 34 states, per Fox.
Instead of enduring trial, the Boy Scouts say they will set up a &#8220;Victims Compensation Trust&#8221; to &#8220;fairly compensate victims harmed during their time in scouting and to keep the 100-year-old nonprofit running for years to come.&#8221;
&#8220;The BSA cares deeply about all victims of abuse and sincerely apologizes to anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting. We are outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to harm innocent children,&#8221; the president of the BSA said in a statement issued to media Tuesday morning. &#8220;While we know nothing can undo the tragic abuse that victims suffered, we believe the Chapter 11 process – with the proposed Trust structure – will provide equitable compensation to all victims while maintaining the BSA&#8217;s important mission.&#8221;
The trust fund seems like the most logical way to handle a settlement, dividing up the organizations billions in a way that provides restitution to victims but also ensures the Boy Scouts will not fade from existence &#8212; something BSA advocates have been fearing for years as interest and, subsequently, membership, has dried up.
“You’re talking about thousands of perpetrators,&#8221; one attorney representing the alleged victims told reporters, comparing the class action suit to similar suits against the Catholic Church. &#8220;You’re talking about tens of thousands of victims. This will be the largest bankruptcy the country has ever seen, and likely one of the largest corporate bankruptcies. It will be far larger in terms of the numbers of victims and far more complicated than any of the bankruptcies we&#8217;ve seen so far involving the Catholic Church.&#8221;
As part of the settlement plan, NBC News reports, individual lawsuits, filed outside of the class action, will be &#8220;halted and transferred to federal bankruptcy court for adjudication&#8221; alongside the 300-person class action.
Alongside Tuesday&#8217;s bankruptcy filing, the BSA has also <a href="https://www.bsarestructuring.org/an-open-letter-to-victims-from-the-boy-scouts-of-america/">issued an open apology to victims of sexual abuse</a>.
&#8220;As a father, a former Scout, and the National Chair of the Boy Scouts of America, I am truly heartbroken that you were harmed during your time in Scouting and that you carry unfathomable pain,&#8221; writes Jim Turley, BSA&#8217;s national chair. &#8220;I am outraged that individuals took advantage of our programs to commit these heinous acts.&#8221;
&#8220;I am also outraged that there were times when volunteers and employees ignored our procedures or forgave transgressions that are unforgivable,&#8221; Turley continues. &#8220;In some cases, this led to tragic acts of abuse. While those instances were limited, they mean we didn’t do enough to protect the children in our care – to protect you. On behalf of myself and the entire Scouting community: I am sorry. I am devastated that there were times in the past when we failed the very children we were supposed to protect.&#8221; 

The apology will also reportedly run as a full page ad in several national newspapers.
BSA says its scouting programs will continue while the bankruptcy filing moves through court and a trust fund is created. The Chapter 11 filing is also only for the national organization, not independent councils. The lawsuits, though, are far from the only trouble dogging the BSA. Interest in the hundred-year-old organization has waned considerably in recent years, and some major pipelines for BSA membership, like the Mormon Church, have parted ways with the organization amid the BSA&#8217;s efforts to &#8220;modernize&#8221; by including female scouts and allowing openly gay scout leaders.

boy scouts

Boy Scouts Of America Files For Bankruptcy After ‘Decades’ Of Sexual Abuse Claims

The Boy Scouts of America have become so &#8220;inclusive&#8221; that they have basically become the Girl Scouts.
An all-female troop of ten attended a ceremony on Tuesday to be sworn-in as Boy Scouts in Arkansas.
<a href="http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/arkansas/story/2019/feb/11/all-female-boy-scouts-take-oath-arkansas/765219/">According</a> to Texarkana Gazette, the ten girls of Troop 19, ranging from 11-17 years old, were sworn-in alongside Boy Scouts of Troop 17 at a Methodist church in Bryant, Arkansas. &#8220;The group became the first all-girls troop chartered by the Quapaw Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. The Quapaw Area Council is the largest council in the state, representing 39 counties in central and northeast Arkansas,&#8221; reported the paper.
Although there is already a space for females at the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts have been hit with declining numbers and pressure from the political Left to open their troops up to females. Girls were &#8220;fully incorporated&#8221; into the Boy Scouts ranks as of February 1, <a href="http://www.chroniclet.com/Local-News/2019/02/12/Boy-Scouts-open-doors-to-girls.html">according</a> to The Chronicle.
Apparently, all-female Boy Scout troops are trending in Arkansas: &#8220;All-girls troops have formed in Conway, White Hall and Cabot since the Bryant troop&#8217;s induction, and the council plans to add 10 or 12 more all-girls troops in the next month, according to Marcal Young, Scouts executive and CEO of the Quapaw Area Council.&#8221;
And Elyria, Ohio&#8217;s first all-female troop gained some traction on Monday night, as Jesse Grabowski, scoutmaster for Scouts BSA Troop 122, recruited girls and young women.
&#8220;The girls we&#8217;ve noticed wanting to sign up are looking for a program other than what they&#8217;ve already been exposed to,&#8221; <a href="http://www.chroniclet.com/Local-News/2019/02/12/Boy-Scouts-open-doors-to-girls.html">said</a> Grabowski. &#8220;They heard about our program and they&#8217;ve seen their brothers, cousins, friends go through the BSA program, and they like what they saw and are curious about what we have to offer.&#8221;
As noted by The Chronicle, the Boy Scouts of America have suffered a decline in scout attendance, and helped to further torpedo their intake with their decision to lift bans on transgender scouts and gay troop leaders. Last year, the Mormon Church withdrew support from the Boy Scouts, &#8220;effectively cutting off about one-fifth of the BSA&#8217;s scouting base.&#8221;
Troop 19 Scoutmaster Tim McEuen told the Texarkana Gazette that all-female troops like theirs should serve as a model for other states. &#8220;We want other states to look at us and think, &#8216;wow,'&#8221; he said.
But not everyone is so thrilled. Leaders at the Girl Scouts of the USA blasted the Boy Scouts for opening their troops to females, accusing them of turning their backs on single-gender environments and essentially siphoning off their scouts instead of handling various scandals appropriately.
&#8220;The Boy Scouts&#8217; house is on fire,&#8221; the Girl Scouts <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/girl-scouts-slam-boy-scouts-decision-accept-girls/story?id=50433448">told</a> ABC News in a statement October, 2017. &#8220;Instead of addressing systemic issues of continuing sexual assault, financial mismanagement and deficient programming, BSA&#8217;s senior management wants to add an accelerant to the house fire by recruiting girls.&#8221;
In a blog post, the Girl Scouts highlighted the value of &#8220;single-gender environments.&#8221;
&#8220;Girl Scouts is the best girl leadership organization in the world, created with and for girls,&#8221; the blog post <a href="http://blog.girlscouts.org/2017/10/girl-scouts-are-girl-leadership-experts.html">said</a>. &#8220;We believe strongly in the importance of the all-girl, girl-led, and girl-friendly environment that Girl Scouts provides, which creates a free space for girls to learn and thrive.&#8221;
&#8220;The benefit of the single-gender environment has been well-documented by educators, scholars, other girl- and youth-serving organizations, and Girl Scouts and their families. Girl Scouts offers a one-of-a-kind experience for girls with a program tailored specifically to their unique developmental needs,&#8221; the post continued. &#8220;At Girl Scouts, we are the girl experts, and for more than a century we have provided millions of girls opportunities for adventure, inspiration, and valuable mentoring. &#8230; The Girl Scout Leadership Experience pairs girls with strong, caring female role models and mentors who prepare them to take the lead from age 5 to 18 and into adulthood.&#8221;

HUH? Arkansas Swears In All-Female ‘Boy Scout’ Troop

Arkansas

Gender

The Girl Scouts of the USA is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/07/us/girl-boy-scouts-scli-intl/index.html%20'">suing</a> the Boy Scouts of America for their plans to drop the word &#8220;Boy&#8221; from their name in 2019. The complaint the Girl Scouts filed stated that the Boy Scouts do not have the right to use &#8220;scouts&#8221; or &#8220;scouting,&#8221; and the Girl Scouts brand and their programs will be damaged if the Boy Scouts follow through with their plans. It also asserted, &#8220;Only GSUSA has the right to use the Girl Scouts and Scouts trademarks with leadership development services for girls.&#8221;
The <a href="https://dlbjbjzgnk95t.cloudfront.net/1099000/1099554/https-ecf-nysd-uscourts-gov-doc1-127123554162.pdf">lawsuit stated</a>:
<blockquote>
Throughout GSUSA&#8217;s history, it has coexisted with defendant BSA, which has long offered programs aimed at boys under the BOY SCOUTS trademark. Like the GIRL SCOUTS trademark, the BOY SCOUTS trademark is a symbol of youth development programs that, for more than a century, have been aimed at, led by and developed primarily for boys. Thus, even though both GSUSA and BSA use the term SCOUTS as part of their core trademarks, the organizations are distinct, with one offering leadership programming developed for and aimed at girls, and the other offering programming developed for and aimed at boys.
However, that core gender distinction between the two organizations and their use of the term SCOUTS and variations thereof has been altered by BSA&#8217;s recent decision to offer all of its services to both boys and girls of all ages for the first time in its long history. Indeed, even though GSUSA and BSA have Congressional charters and separate grants of intellectual roperty rights that are specific to girls and boys, respectively, BSA is now using its trademarks in a manner that is both new and uniquely damaging to GSUSA, its trademarks and their underlying goodwill. In particular, given its significant programming shift, BSA is now trying to alter its core brand identity from BOY SCOUTS to SCOUTS, through the use of communicative elements like the slogan &#8220;Scout Me In&#8221; and the new name by which it will refer to its best known Boy Scout program &#8211; &#8220;Scouts BSA&#8221; with members being called &#8220;Scouts.&#8221;
</blockquote>
The lawsuit added, &#8220;Since BSA&#8217;s announcement that it would admit girls to its core programs, GSUSA&#8217;s fears about the damage that would be caused to its trademarks and the mission those trademarks symbolize have been realized. Throughout the country, families, schools and communities have been told that GSUSA and BSA have merged, or even that GSUSA no longer exists. Parents interested in signing up for GIRL SCOUTS programs have instead mistakenly signed up for the new girls&#8217; programs offered by BSA.&#8221;
In January 2017, The Boy Scouts of America <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/30/us/boy-scouts-transgender-membership/index.html">said</a> they would accept members based on their gender identity. The same year they announced girls could become Eagle Scouts. In May the organization said it was changing the program for children between the ages of 11 and 17 to Scouts USA.
<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/30/us/boy-scouts-transgender-membership/index.html">Boy Scouts of America</a> released a statement saying, &#8220;We applaud every organization that builds character and leadership in children, including the Girl Scouts of the USA, and believe that there is an opportunity for both organizations to serve girls and boys in our communities.&#8221;

Girl Scouts Suing Boy Scouts Over Leaving ‘Boy’ Out Of Their Name

As I have documented repeatedly, the left ruins just about everything it touches: the universities, the arts, the elementary schools and high schools, religion, sports and ordinary, everyday interactions between human beings — especially human beings of different races. The latest examples — in just the last few weeks — are the Boy Scouts, sculpture and the Miss America pageant.
The left&#8217;s decadeslong attempt to radically change the Boy Scouts has ended in triumph. Now that the Boy Scouts is admitting not only older girls but also younger girls — as Cub Scouts — it is dropping &#8220;Boy&#8221; from its name and becoming Scouts BSA. Thanks to the left, the Boy Scouts, one of the most socially and morally constructive organizations in America, is no longer the Boy Scouts.
As a result of that, as a result of the decision to admit openly gay males as troop leaders (the Boy Scouts never asked potential troop leaders about their sexual orientation but did not allow openly gay troop leaders) and as a result of factors specific to the Mormon church, the largest sponsor of Boy Scout troops in America, the church has ended its 100-year relationship with the Boy Scouts.
Another victim of the left in recent weeks is the arts. Last week, The New York Times published a serious &#8220;review&#8221; on a major new &#8220;art work&#8221; at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The &#8220;art work&#8221; is a set of four giant piles of sculpted excrement. As described by Times writer Nina Siegal: &#8220;I walked into the excrement.
&#8220;There were four giant turds inside the 16,000 square feet of museum space. One mammoth piece of feces was reminiscent of a long, winding steel sculpture by Richard Serra. One was a brown spiral. Another resembled an enormous chocolate chip. Yet another featured intertwined layers with a gap in between that I could have crawled through &#8230;&#8221;
The artistic left is infatuated with feces, urine and menstrual blood. Last year, New York City&#8217;s famed Guggenheim Museum featured an all-gold toilet bowl into which visitors were invited to relieve themselves. As the exhibit was titled &#8220;America,&#8221; one could then literally urinate and defecate on America. Why not? The left does that to America and Western civilization every day.
The latest victim of the left is the Miss America contest. The Miss America board announced that contestants will no longer wear swimsuits or evening gowns because Miss America will no longer be about physical beauty. It will be about &#8220;the hopes and aspirations&#8221; of 52 women contestants.
My first reaction is: Why stop there? To be consistent with its new ideals, the event should no longer be televised but rather broadcast on the radio. Only then will the contestants&#8217; looks be truly irrelevant.
The left, which has brought &#8220;sex week&#8221; to almost every college campus, which has introduced coed dormitories with coed showers and bathrooms, and which has told young women that sex without any commitment should be as much fun for them as it is for men, is now the guardian of modesty at the Miss America contest.
Feminists hate the fact that &#8220;society&#8221; places greater importance on female beauty than on male beauty. They blame this is on &#8220;sexism,&#8221; &#8220;misogyny&#8221; and &#8220;patriarchy.&#8221; But of course, it is nature that made humans this way (among peacocks, it&#8217;s the other way around).
In particular, feminists hate it when women try to look sexy, especially in the eyes of men.
One of the left&#8217;s favorite terms to describe the Miss America swimsuit competition (and even the evening gown competition) is &#8220;dehumanizing.&#8221; In a long article on the Miss America decision, The New York Times quoted Julie Zeilinger, who founded &#8220;a feminist blog called FBomb&#8221;: &#8220;in 2018 this organization has realized it&#8217;s dehumanizing to compare and judge women&#8217;s bodies in front of a vast, international audience.&#8221;
This feminist charge is ubiquitous but never explained. Why is it dehumanizing?
One irony is feminists have argued for decades that women should be allowed to walk around topless, just as men can.
Another irony is that when non-Muslims argue that Muslim women wearing a chador is dehumanizing, the left charges them with intolerance and Islamophobia.
A third irony is women are as interested in seeing beautiful women in swimsuits as men are.
And what about those religious Christians and Jews who agree with the feminists and welcome the end of the swimsuit competition?
I was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, and I recall my mother and father enjoying the Miss America pageant every year. They would discuss their favorites with each other, both of them perfectly at peace with the proceedings, as was the Christian majority.
Which raises a final irony: When America was far more conservative, far more religious and far more concerned with daily modesty in dress, and when it insisted that male students and female students reside in separate dorms at college, it celebrated the Miss America pageant with its swimsuit competition. That was a healthier America.
Inside of a few weeks, the left has gravely damaged the Boy Scouts, probably destroyed the Miss America pageant and pounded another nail into the coffin of art.
That&#8217;s what the left does best — ruins whatever it touches. That&#8217;s pretty much all it does.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in April 2018, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Exodus. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.

PRAGER: Miss America: The Latest Institution Destroyed By The Left

Leftism

Mike Rowe recently appeared on Fox News&#8217; &#8220;Tucker Carlson Tonight.&#8221;
Rowe was the host of Discovery Channel&#8217;s &#8220;Dirty Jobs&#8221; and, among many other things, now acts as CEO of the <a href="http://profoundlydisconnected.com/foundation/">mikeroweWORKS Foundation</a>, a charitable organization &#8220;that rewards people with a passion to get trained for skilled jobs that actually exist,&#8221; according to its official website.
During the segment, Tucker Carlson questioned Rowe about the new changes to the Boy Scouts of America:
<blockquote>
CARLSON: You were famously an Eagle Scout as a boy. The Scouts are no longer the Boy Scouts, but simply the Scouts. What&#8217;s your response to that?
ROWE: Well, it&#8217;s funny you should ask, Tucker, because no less than 10,000 people have asked me that very question over the last month on my Facebook page. &#8230;
Look, I&#8217;m watching what&#8217;s happening carefully. I&#8217;ve sent 50,000 to 55,000 letters out over the last ten years to other Eagle Scouts, and I think the country needs the Scouts. I think the country needs the Future Farmers of America and Skills USA and 4H desperately &#8211; now more than ever.
So, it does concern me to see all the confusion swirling around the organization, but like so many wounds, I&#8217;m afraid many of these are self-inflicted. And I also think that some of the confusion that&#8217;s going on is legitimate. I read their official statement. While girls are being welcomed in, I didn&#8217;t read anything about integrated camping trips or troop meetings. I think it really is a play to compete more directly with the Girl Scouts, and I understand why the Girl Scouts are upset, but since when is competition a bad thing?
So, I think character development and leadership development have never been more important than they are today. So, my hope is that the Boy Scouts assume the opportunity that&#8217;s presenting itself, and become an antidote for the safe space environment that&#8217;s out there and push back a little bit. I mean, not to sound like the angry guy on your neighbor&#8217;s porch yelling at the kids on the lawn, but when I was in the Scouts in &#8217;74 and &#8217;75, it wasn&#8217;t a safe space there in the basement of our church. I mean, you&#8217;d go home with a bloody nose sometimes, or a black eye &#8211; we had a boxing ring. You know, it was a vibrant place where you really could test yourself and fail in a way that on the one hand made you safe enough to attempt, but on the other hand didn&#8217;t try and check every box and please every single person.
It&#8217;s a tough time. I&#8217;m sympathetic for the leaders, but I&#8217;m afraid you&#8217;ve got to draw the line somewhere and be very, very clear about what you stand for as well as against.
CARLSON: So you don&#8217;t see this as the end of something then?
ROWE: I don&#8217;t know. You know, I mean, again, you either evolve or you die, but at the same time, I think people are confused because the Scouts simply haven&#8217;t come out and said categorically what they&#8217;re for, right? So, I just think this conversation touches on every single hot point right now going on in popular culture, from tolerance to acceptance &#8211; which, by the way, I&#8217;m not sure what the difference between those two things is anymore &#8211; but there used to be a big difference.
People are struggling for their own identity, and look, the last time I was on we talked about this. We talked about the idea that everything is either being informed by a safe space culture or everything is being informed by people who want to be challenged. I think people are desperate to be challenged and my hope for these youth-based organizations that help preach character is that they look for people who want to be challenged and not curry favor so much with those who want a nice, reassuring pat on the head.
</blockquote>
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Mike Rowe On Boy Scouts Change: ‘You’ve Got To Draw The Line Somewhere’

Mike Rowe

The Boy Scouts World Scout Jamboree, which is held every four years and next will be held in West Virginia in 2019, may offer something to Scouts that would have been unthinkable years ago: condoms.
Scouts from around the world will attend the event, which will be guided by the World Scout Committee&#8217;s handbook, which offers health and safety guidelines for the event. On <a href="https://issuu.com/worldscouting/docs/wosm_wsjguidelines_en_2016">page 11 of the handbook</a>, it reads, &#8220;The Host Organization must ensure that condoms are readily and easily accessible for all participants and IST (International Service Team) at a number of locations on the site. &#8230; When making this information available onsite, consideration shall be given to the various cultures and beliefs present.&#8221;
The handbook also writes, &#8220;The use of alcohol shall not be permitted on the Jamboree site. Some exceptions may be made for adults in confined areas, in accordance with the host country&#8217;s habits.&#8221;
As <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/05/22/boy-scout-world-jamboree-leadership-requires-condoms-readily-and-easily-accessible-for-event?utm_content=buffer50f3d&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=theblaze">The Blaze</a> notes, an announcement on the event&#8217;s page states, &#8220;For the first time, a world jamboree will be hosted by three national Scout organizations: Scouts Canada, Asociación de Scouts de México, and the Boy Scouts of America.&#8221;
John Stemberger, Florida Family Policy Council president and chairman of the board of Trail Life News, a Christian Scouting group, <a href="https://flfamily.org/press-releases/boyscoutsworldjamboree2019">stated</a>:
<blockquote>
In light of the mandatory condom policy, it is not clear how far down the rabbit hole the Boy Scouts will continue to fall. With the addition of condoms and alcohol, the World Jamboree is starting to sound more like a 1960s Woodstock festival rather than a campout that parents would want to send their children to! All of this should be deeply disturbing to the churches that are chartering Boy Scout Troops. These policies present a clear youth protection problem that the BSA absolutely refuses to recognize. The fact that they are requiring that condoms be &#8220;readily accessible&#8221; and are communicating this to everyone&#8212;including youth participants&#8212;shows that the BSA is both anticipating and facilitating sexual conduct between minors at this event. These policies are both outrageous and completely irresponsible.
</blockquote>

OUTRAGEOUS: Boy Scouts May Provide Condoms At World Scout Jamboree

On Wednesday, former &#8220;Dirty Jobs&#8221; host Mike Rowe answered a social media follower&#8217;s question on his Facebook page, as he frequently does. A woman named Sharon Freeman wanted to hear Rowe&#8217;s thoughts on what she described as &#8220;the tragic death of the Boy Scouts of America,&#8221; an organization which recently opened their enrollment to females and upgraded to a new politically-correct name: &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/30131/boy-scouts-now-accepting-girls-get-new-politically-amanda-prestigiacomo">Scouts BSA</a>.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m curious as to your opinion on the tragic death of the Boy Scouts of America?! I have several cousins that are Eagle Scouts, and I know that you are one also, so I feel you have somewhat of a vested interest in this matter. I didn&#8217;t have a problem with entire families going on Boy Scout camping trips, but to force them to become co-ed&#8230;I think that&#8217;s sad,&#8221; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMikeRowe/posts/1916686088341525">wrote</a> Freeman.
Rowe&#8217;s thoughtful reply noted the massive drop in membership within the 108-year-old organization and suggested this was caused by the group clinging lifelessly to &#8220;inclusion&#8221; while lacking relevance. To be a vital service to our youth, as they were to him as a child, explained Rowe, the Boy Scouts must stand firmly in opposition to so-called &#8220;safe space&#8221; culture.
&#8220;If the Boy Scouts want to attract a new generation of members, they&#8217;ll need to stand for something more than inclusion. Because being inclusive doesn&#8217;t make you relevant,&#8221; he stated.
&#8220;In Troop 16, merit badges reflected merit. There was a boxing ring where differences were often settled, monthly camping trips, frequent visits to the shooting range, weekly fitness tests, poetry readings from memory, and many other activities tailor-made to pull every kid out of his particular comfort zone,&#8221; he fondly recalled.
The host said the inclusion of trans troops and past sex scandals were likely contributing factors to the steep decline in enrollment numbers, but had a different general diagnosis (emphasis added):
&#8220;In my opinion, this kind of attrition can only [be] explained by an increasing lack of relevance, or, the perception of irrelevance,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;Right now, there&#8217;s a perception that The Boy Scouts have gone soft. That&#8217;s the real tragedy, Sharon, because I can&#8217;t think of anything more needed in our country today, than a youth organization that offers kids the same experience I underwent in the basement of Kenwood Church. Why? Because our country&#8217;s current obsession with &#8216;safe spaces&#8217; is destroying character faster than the Boy Scouts of today can build it. &#8230; I also know the &#8216;safe space movement&#8217; is real, and I can think of no better way to push back than to expose more kids to the brand of Scouting that I was lucky enough to encounter four decades ago.&#8221;
&#8220;If by some miracle, the dynamic I experienced in Troop 16 were available to everyone today &#8212; if Scouting could somehow recapture that combination of risk and wonder and pride and personal accountability &#8212; I believe their ranks would swell with the sons and daughters of millions of anxious parents, desperate to expose their kids to a program that prepares them for the real world,&#8221; he added.
If Rowe were in charge, he&#8217;d &#8220;take a stand against the safe space movement and everything it embodies,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;As we all know, in 1974, a chipped tooth or a black eye didn&#8217;t lead to a lawsuit, and today, I&#8217;m pretty sure a boxing ring and a trip to the shooting range would make a lot of parents &#8230; uncomfortable. But that&#8217;s exactly the point. In a world that values safety above everything else, discomfort is never welcome. Neither is risk. And yet, discomfort and risk are precisely why my time in Scouting was so valuable, and why Troop 16 was the polar opposite of a safe space.&#8221;
View the full post, below:
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<a href="http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/17/mike-rowe-boy-scouts/">H/T</a> The Daily Caller

Mike Rowe Sounds Off On The ‘Death Of The Boy Scouts’

The Boy Scouts of America have always been a pretty explicitly faith-based organization. Though nondenominational, references to God and Creator were woven within the Boy Scouts&#8217; documents and behaviors.
The organization grounded itself in a worldview that is archaic in modern times, despite more than 2 billion people worldwide professing a Christian worldview. It just is not popular in elite circles anymore. The Scouts had always balanced its middle-class religious members and the coastal elites who got to claim a faux connection with Middle America through supporting Boy Scouts.
The assault on the scouts took a while to get up to speed, but as the cultural wildfires began to burn across America, scouts were in danger of getting burned, too. Interwoven into the Boy Scouts of America&#8217;s &#8220;God language&#8221; was an underlying belief in a Biblical human sexual ethic. As a result, gay and transgender scouts were not welcome in the Boy Scouts of America, nor were gay scoutmasters.
Gay rights activists decided that needed to change. First, political institutions were attacked. Liberal cities, under pressure, began prohibiting the scouts from meeting in local public schools and other public facilities. The scouts fought back and won significant legal battles. The activists moved on to corporate America and began attacking organizations that gave to the scouts. A group once viewed as wholesome suddenly became a pack of bigots. Nightly newscasts showed aggrieved parents of gay kids and the kids upset that the scouts would keep them out. Instead of starting their own organization, they demanded the scouts abandon their long held and widely held views.
The corporate titans who made up the scouting organization&#8217;s board were at risk of being shamed in their liberal circles. So the scouts began letting in gay scouts and transgender scouts. Many evangelical churches and organizations began fleeing. They saw the gates of sanity had been breached and crazy was about to flood in. It did.
In addition to keeping out gay and transgender scouts, the scouts had decided to keep out gay scoutmasters. There were over 2,000 sexual abuse cases reported within the scouts with that prohibition. Gay rights activists pointed to that as proof the scouts were failing and gay scoutmasters could not be blamed. They demanded gay scoutmasters be allowed.
The corporations that had long funded the scouts began to bristle as gay rights activists shamed them. Soon the media was back to tales of woe as gay scouts teared up on camera knowing they could never be scoutmasters.
The Boy Scouts of America caved. People began joking that it was only a matter of time before they started letting girls in. No one is laughing now. The Boy Scouts of America will now be referred to as the Scouts BSA and allow in girls. Yes, some transgender advocates are already screaming that this is discriminatory because there are kids out there who identify as neither boy nor girl.
Truthfully, the Girl Scouts of America is a decrepit organization that has been captured wholesale by the abortion advocacy community. It sells cookies and nothing else of use. Girls got bored, and the BSA took advantage of it.
The Mormon Church is pulling out. Twenty percent of scouts in America have been Mormon, and the church has had a relationship with the Boy Scouts of America for 100 years. More than half of scouts were either Mormon or Christian evangelicals, but not any more. Scouting is in decline. Boys had a wholesome organization to teach them godly values and how to be men. Left-wing activists, peddling all the corrupting influences of a secular world, went to war. The scouts chose to surrender instead of sticking with their core constituency. They will linger on, limping, as a left-wing advocacy group. But the Boy Scouts of America are no more.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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