Boy Scouts uphold ban on gays

After a two year review, today the Boy Scouts issued a statement reaffirming its ban on openly gay Scout members or leaders.

An 11-member special committee, formed discreetly by top Scout leaders in 2010, "came to the conclusion that this policy is absolutely the best policy for the Boy Scouts," the organization' national spokesman, Deron Smith, told The Associated Press. Smith said the committee, comprised of professional scout executives and adult volunteers, was unanimous in its conclusion — preserving a long-standing policy that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 and has remained controversial ever since. As a result of the committee's decision, the Scouts' national executive board will take no further action on a recently submitted resolution asking for reconsideration of the membership policy.

Recently Ernst & Young CEO James Turley and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, both of whom sit on the Boy Scouts board of directors, signaled their willingness to lift the ban. Stephenson is pegged to head the national board beginning in 2014. The above-linked story notes that the Boy Scouts concede that today's decision came with internal dissent on its board.

Via JoeMyGod