The Boy Scouts of America organization has decided to allow transgender children to participate in its boys-only programs.
The change occurred when the Boy Scouts decided to determine eligibility based on the gender parents indicate on the application, rather than the gender stated on the child’s birth certificate, as has been the practice for more than 100 years.
Recently, a Secaucus, New Jersey, troop asked an 8-year-old to leave the troop after discovering the child was transgender. Situations such as that one have led to a need to clarify policy, the Boy Scouts of America said.
The Boy Scouts said the birth certificate requirement “is no longer sufficient as communities and state laws are interpreting gender identity differently, and these laws vary widely from state to state,” The Associated Press reported.
In 2013, the Boy Scouts allowed openly gay boys to be scouts, and in 2015 reversed a ban on gay troop leaders and employees.
President Donald Trump’s secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson was on the executive board during the time the organization was deciding to allow gay scouts, according to The New York Times.
The group Scouts for Equality applauded the move.
“This is another historic day for the Boy Scouts of America. The decision to allow transgender boys to participate in the Cub Scouts and the Boy Scouts is an important step forward for this American institution,” the group said, Reuters reported.
Fox News contributor Todd Starnes called on churches to stop supporting and hosting Boy Scout troops in the wake of the decision to allow transgender boys, calling it a “sacrifice” on “the altar of political correctness.”
There are nearly 2.3 million Boy Scouts in the United States between the ages of 7 and 21, according to Reuters.
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