Pentagon forced Scouts jamboree to drop spaces for gay youth, women and people of colour
The Pentagon threatened Scouting America with funding cuts in February over DEI. (Image: Envato, Getty)
Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon’s policies against “woke” initiatives forced Scouting America’s National Jamboree event to stop hosting spaces for gay young people, women and people of colour.
The event recently saw around 15,000 scouts, troop leaders and volunteers come together for a 10-day adventure retreat at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia, according to the Associated Press.
However, the US Secretary of War’s decision to cut diversity initiatives meant that previous spaces for queer scouts, women and people of colour were no more.
According to AP, some scouts that were scheduled to attend backed out of the event following news of the cuts.
“Scouting fundamentally is a safe place for young people to have fun,” Samuel J. Aronson, an assistant scoutmaster who has previously organised inclusive events for the National Jamboree, told AP.
“In the absence of these spaces, we’re denying all that, both the safety and the fun, to thousands of young people.”
A Scouting America spokesperson said that the organisation remains “fully committed to welcoming and serving all youth,” but did not further address the policy changes.
Attacks on diversity initiative
In February this year, Hegseth began an ongoing rift between the Pentagon and Scouting America, previously known as the Boy Scouts of America, when he threatened to cut government funding to the organisation if they did not comply with anti-DEI initiatives.
Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote a lengthy X post on 2 February, saying: “Scouting America’s leadership has made decisions that run counter to the values of this administration and this Department of War, including an embrace of DEl and other social justice, gender-fluid ideological stances. This is unacceptable.”
In 2013, Boy Scouts of America began admitting out gay scouts. Two years later, the organisation lifted its ban on adults in leadership positions who are also “open or avowed homosexuals”.
In 2017, the Boy Scouts announced girls would be accepted as Cub Scouts and later accepted into the flagship Boy Scout program, and began welcoming transgender boys into its boys-only programs.
