Boy Scouts Expected To OK Policy Change Allowing Gay Scout Leaders
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The Boy Scouts of America are expected to approve a new policy Monday that will allow for gay scout leaders.
In 2013, the Boy Scouts agreed to allow gay scouts, but not gay scout leaders.
Eagle Scout Zach Wahls said it's about time the change is made.
"The reality is that their current policy was totally unsustainable," he told WCBS 880's Peter Haskell.
"Allowing gay youth but banning gay adults didn't make any sense."
Under the new proposed policy, however, local troops would still be able to ban gay scout leaders.
"While we continue to believe that discrimination has no place in scouting, I think that this is a compromise solution," said Wahls, who was raised by a lesbian couple and joined the Scouts when he was 6 years old.
Wahls started Scouts for Equality in an effort to end discrimination. He's hoping those who have been excluded or offended by the past policy will take another look at scouting.
"By ending the ban at a national level, the Scouts are showing good will to those folks and hopefully we're going to start to see them come back to scouting and back into the scouting family," Wahls said.