Boy Scouts sue LGBTQ+ travel company Queer Scout over name and logo
The Boy Scouts are now known as Scouting America. (Getty)
Scouting America, the organisation formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, is suing a queer travel firm over false association.
Arizona-based LGBTQ travel company Queer Scout runs LGBTQ+ tours and experiences in Medellin, Colombia including various bar crawls, gay salsa dancing and a boat tour.
In its lawsuit filed in February, Scouting America said Queer Scout was “diluting Boy Scouts’ famous trademarks and falsely associating with Boy Scouts” by using the word ‘scout’ in its name and having an image of a fox in its logo.
Scouting America also alleged it offers “similar” services and “prominently uses names and images of animal figures” across its branding.
In response to the legal action, Queer Scout founder Sam Holdren questioned if the lawsuit was filed due to pressure from the Trump administration over Scouting America’s LGBTQ+ policies.
“We’re a small LGBTQ-owned travel company for adults, and our name clearly signals we’re not affiliated with Scouting America or any youth scouting organisation,” Holdren told The Arizona Republic.
The litigation comes as Scouting America, which receives support from the military, was threatened with funding cuts by the Pentagon over its diversity, equality and inclusion policies.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote on Elon Musk’s social media platform X on February 3 that the youth organisation has “lost its way” through an “embrace of DEl and other social justice, gender-fluid ideological stances”.
Parnell added at the time that the Department of War was close to agreeing to continue its partnership with Scouting America “as long as the organisation rapidly implements the common-sense, core value reforms”.
“They are on the clock, and we are watching,” Parnell wrote, threatening the organisation’s funding.
Later in February, defense secretary Pete Hegseth claimed Scouting America had agreed to scrap so-called “radical woke ideology” and restore membership “based solely on biological sex at birth and not gender identity”.
Hegseth said: “That means that the application, any application, will have only two sex designations, male and female, and the application must match the applicant’s birth certificate. Scouting will also make clear that biological boys and girls will not be allowed to occupy or share intimate spaces together: toilets, showers, tents, anywhere like that.”
However, in its own statement Scouting America disputed the idea trans youth would be excluded from participation.
“Our mission and commitment to serving all youth remains unchanged,” the statement read.
“We have transgender people in our program, and we’ll have transgender people in our program going forward,” Scouting America president and chief executive officer also said in Roger Krone said in a separate statement.
Holdren noted this context when discussing the lawsuit lodged against Queer Scout.
“When you combine that timing with the fact that hundreds of businesses have used the word ‘scout,’ it starts to look less like consumer confusion and more like something broader involving identity and visibility,” Holdren went on to say.
“It raises legitimate questions about what’s really driving this escalation,” he said.
However, Scouting America spokesperson Scott Armstrong said there was no relation between the lawsuit and the Trump administration’s anti-DEI policies, adding the legal action is focused on “trademark” and “intellectual property, nothing more”.
