politics

Just going to comment here to avoid some misconceptions. Apologies for the long comment. Tl;Dr, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are not part of the same parent organization.

Scouting America is basically a rebrand for Boy Scouts of America. The rebrand happened when they began to admit girls into the program, like 8 years ago or do. Many people get confused thinking that Boy Scouts of America and Girl Scouts USA are partner organizations when they are not. They are two independent programs with different missions and values. For example, Boy Scouts has maintained Declaration of Religious Principle which requires to members to sign an agreement that states that they believe in some sort of higher power. They also include a Duty to God in their Scout Oath. Girl Scouts on the other hand is a secular organization that does not require a belief in any higher power but does encourage members to explore their own faith if they have one.

The decision for BSA to admit girls was a controversial one even within the organization, but their numbers have been flagging for a while and they felt that allowing girls in would help. There was also a more progressive wing within the organization that recognized how discriminatory this was and wanted to reform the organization. Joining Boy Scouts, with an organizational emphasis on nature, citizenship, and skill mastery, would be a different experience for girls than Girl Scouts, which allows troops to pick for themselves what they want to focus on to develop leadership and confidence and often doesn't include camping at all. Many girls joined Girl Scouts expecting it to have the same focus as Boy Scouts, would be disappointed, and then drop out. This could give the Boy Scout experience to girls.

In order to make this happen, it was agreed that girls would have separate troops from boys. They could share resources but each troop would have their own youth and adult leaders and would need to camp in separate sites. It is not like they are sharing tents or anything like that.

So that's why it is obvious to me that the Pentagon taking this stance is clearly regressive and just trying to be anti-woke and going after an easy target. The military is already coed, so why not give girls the same support and experiences that boys can have in Scouting? Its just another red flag that they want to prevent women from advancing in the military. They know that Scouting America is in a tough spot and thinks they can either get them to regress and tacitly endorse anti-wokeness or be made an example of.

There's another recent change in Scouting America that was also controversial and seen as woke that the article doesn't address. Following the George Floyd protests Scouting America came up with a new merit badge that would be required for any scout that wanted to reach the rank of Eagle: Citizenship in Society. This badge explicitly discusses racial injustice and teaches Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion principles. As you can imagine, this did not sit well with conservative members and many left in protest (though many had already left when girls and gays were allowed). There have been a few different new organizations attempting to recapture the old school Boy Scout mentality with a doubled down emphasis on gender exclusivity, religion, and pure meritocracy without any regard to positions of privilege. They are growing and I suspect one will try to replace Scouting America as the youth organization of choice for the military.