Forward … Hmm, where have we seen that theme for a youth organization before? Oh, that’s right — it was in German that time.
Also following Trump’s appearance at the 2017 Jamboree, many Scouts’ moms, who had been apoplectic since he was elected and couldn’t handle their sons’ enjoyment of the event, wrote screechy, enraged, tear-soaked letters and Facebook comments to BSA National Headquarters, demanding that something be done to atone for the sin of giving the U.S. president a platform.
Within days, the BSA and Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh posted apologies. But that was never going to be enough. Mere months later, national Scouting leadership, already under intense pressure from its corporate sponsors to go fully intersectional, removed the final restriction that made the Boy Scouts a unique youth program: the mighty, formerly boys-only BSA announced that girls would be allowed to become Scouts. It was finally time to quash the last remaining bastion of toxic masculinity!
To be sure, National HQ had been wrestling for some years with declining Scout enrollment numbers. The BSA mothership was ready to try to widen Scouting’s appeal to attract more kids and their families. They had already been dabbling in things like loosening uniform requirements and building skate parks at their high adventure camps. Opening the doors to Scouts and Scout leaders with non-traditional sexuality and then to girls may have seemed like a no-brainer — cast a wider net, catch more fish — but it was predestined to fail. This is because the changes gutted Scouting of the things that made it Scouting. Once the final erasure took place and girls were invited in, there was nothing left to make the program stand out from any other youth organization.
Now, as Scoutmasters across the country prepare to lead their troops to the 2023 Jamboree, they receive forms from the organizers asking them things like whether there are any trans or nonbinary Scouts in their troop so that their “additional needs” can be met. Scouts at the Jambo can hear from luminaries such as former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah L. Birx or Elaine P. Ho, the Chief Diversity Officer at NASA. Attendees can swing by the three-day inaugural “Women of Character” event, “designed to foster thought leadership, generate support for female-centric Scouting units across the United States, and ensure that young women have the opportunity to participate in the life-changing experiences that Scouting provides.” No presidential visit is planned, however.
In truth, the Scouting movement was ebbing because society was changing: young people were growing more self-absorbed, spending time online rather than outdoors, and becoming reliant on “the government,” not one’s self, to take care of everything. If Scouting had stuck to its original founding principles, it may have persevered indefinitely, smaller but still highly attractive to those boys and their families who valued the Scout Oath and Law. Pretending Scouting can be all things to all people, however, will do nothing but make it common, nothing special, and not of particular interest to anyone.
