Boy Scouts of America Votes to Allow Gay Leaders

The executive committee of the Boy Scouts of America has unanimously approved a resolution that would end the organization's blanket ban on gay adult leaders and let individual Scout units set their own policy on the long-divisive issue. Units sponsored by churches opposed to the change could maintain the ban if they choose. In a statement released yesterday, the BSA said the resolution has been approved by the 17-member executive committee and will become official policy immediately if ratified by the organization's 80-member National Executive Board at a meeting on July 27. (In May, the organization's president, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, declared that the ban was unsustainable.)