The Pentagon is preparing to end its 100-year partnership with the organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth cited concerns over its recent changes to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
He argued that the group, now called Scouting America, no longer supports the interests of American boys.
Highlights
- The Pentagon plans to end its century-long partnership with the Boy Scouts, citing concerns over recent DEI changes.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth criticized Scouting America for becoming 'genderless' and abandoning boy-focused values.
- The Pentagon will stop providing medical, logistical aid, and hosting Scout troops on military bases domestically and abroad.
Pete Hegseth is preparing to end a 100-year partnership between the Pentagon and the Boy Scouts
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In leaked documents obtained by NPR, the Defense Secretary wrote, “The organization once endorsed by President Theodore Roosevelt no longer supports the future of American boys.”
He said the organization is now designed to “attack boy-friendly spaces.”
The proposal makes changes in several areas where the Pentagon supported the organization, including no longer providing medical and logistical aid to the National Jamboree, a large-scale scouting event where 20,000 scouts travel to a remote site in West Virginia.
Image credits: The National Guard
The Pentagon provides trucks, ambulances, medical teams, and demonstrations, including aviation and skydiving, all free of charge.
Bases across the U.S. and overseas have hosted Scout troops, offering training and an opportunity for recruitment.
The memo also calls for these military bases to no longer allow Scout troops to meet at their installations in the U.S. and abroad.
Hegseth’s proposal would end these contributions. The documents have yet to be officially submitted to Congress, which is required to support it.
However, a legal loophole allows the war secretary to withhold support if it is “detrimental to national security.”
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NPR reported that these drafts do indeed show Hegseth invoking the loophole clause, where he accuses Scouting America of fostering “gender confusion.”
His memo argues the Scouts have strayed from their mission to “cultivate masculine values.” In addition, it claims that the Pentagon does not have the budget to send troops for the 10-day youth event.
It would harm national security since the resources are better needed for border operations and protecting U.S. territory, Hegseth argues.
Hegseth, who was never a Boy Scout, previously criticized the organization’s policies. “The Boy Scouts has been cratering itself for quite some time. This is an institution the left didn’t control. They didn’t want to improve it. They wanted to destroy it or dilute it into something that stood for nothing,” he told Fox News last year while speaking about the Scouts admitting girls back in 2018.
Hegseth cited concerns over the organization becoming ‘genderless’ and attacking ‘boy-friendly spaces’
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In 2013 and 2017, the Boy Scouts of America began allowing LGBTQ youth and girls to join, respectively.
The decision has already sparked debate within the Pentagon. Navy Secretary John Phelan warned NPR that “prohibition of access could be detrimental to recruitment and accession efforts across the department.”
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has long scaled back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within the American military. Earlier this year, he fired “fat troops” from the U.S. military and called for standardized height, weight, and physical fitness requirements for all military personnel.
He admitted that this approach could lead to fewer women qualifying for some combat jobs. “If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it … that is not the intent, but it could be the result,” he said.
Image credits: Getty Images
Scouting America has maintained that its values have not changed. President Roger Krone, who took over last year, said the organization wants all youth to feel welcome in its programs.
“In the next 100 years, we want any youth in America to feel very, very welcome to come into our programs,” he said. “About anything kids want to do today, they can do in a structured way within the scouting program.”
In 2023, the Boy Scouts went through a $2.4 billion bankruptcy reorganization plan after more than 80,000 men alleged they were sexually abused as children while scouting. The bankruptcy allowed the organization to compensate the men while keeping the organization working.
Image credits: Getty Images
“The Scouting movement has had a strong relationship with our nation’s military going back more than a century,” Scouting America responded to Hegseth’s memo, according to The Hill.
“From the tremendous support of the West Virginia National Guard at our National Jamborees to Scout troops that provide stability for the children of military families deployed around the globe, our nation’s military has walked side-by-side with Scouts for generations.”
“The Department will not comment on leaked documents that we cannot authenticate and that may be pre-decisional,” a Pentagon spokesperson told Daily Mail.