Gay Community Center Seeks Cub Scouts Charter

A Chicago community center for gays and lesbians wants to host a Cub Scout pack. In July, the Boy Scouts of America lifted its ban on openly gay adults leading scout troops through a unanimous vote of its executive board, citing a “sea change in the law with respect to gay rights.”

The Center on Halsted in Chicago’s North Side Lake View community intends to form an inclusive scout troop, one that welcomes openly gay youths as well as gay pack leaders, and recently put out a call for adults interested helping to form such a unit.

The Center will apply for a charter from the Boy Scouts of America, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. If granted, the Cub Scouts pack would be open to boys from the first grade through fifth grade starting in 2016.

This LGBTQ community center would be the first in the United States to host a scout unit. The community center has hosted a Girl Scout troop for two years.

“We’re embarking on a new groundbreaking endeavor and that’s very exciting,” Julie Walther, chief program officer at Center on Halsted, said in a statement on the organization’s website. “It’s important for us, as an organization, to be those agents of change and lead the way in creating inclusive communities.”

In July, the Boy Scouts changed national policy to allow troops to choose leaders without regard to sexual orientation. Religious organizations with chartered scout troops may still restrict leadership positions, however. Two years ago, the Boy Scouts enacted a policy that allows children to join the Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation.

The moves did not come without controversy and vehement disagreement.

“We recognize the Boy Scouts have had a rocky past, but given the changes in policy they have implemented, we are ready to offer this programming and offer it in a safe space,” Center spokesman Peter Johnson told the Sun-Times.

The Center said previous Scout experience is preferred among the adult volunteers. A meeting is planned for Monday to work on the charter application. The Chicago and Oak Park chapters of Scouts for Equality are assisting the Center in its application.

Mary Anderson, a lesbian mother from Oak Park, has also helped in the planning. She is a member of the Oak Park chapter of Scouts for Equality. When her son joined the Cub Scouts in 2012, he was disappointed his mom could not be a den mother. She told him he could quit.

But Anderson’s son inspired her to join Scouts for Equality instead and work to get the sexual orientation policies changed to be all-inclusive.

“Mommy, if we don’t change it,” her son Jordan asked, “who will?”

The change for children happened in 2013, and the change for adults happened this year. Now, a gay community center in Chicago could be the very first in the nation to charter a scout troop.