Pentagon and Scouting America reach deal to keep ties after Hegseth’s anti-DEI push

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has made a deal with Scouting America that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday would maintain their century-old partnership but refocus the organization away from diversity initiatives and other “woke” policies he accused it of embracing in recent years.

Hegseth put heavy emphasis on Scouting America’s acceptance of transgender youth, saying the organization will require members to use their “biological sex at birth and not gender identity.” But Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, said the agreement does not change existing policies regarding transgender youth and that they are welcome.

“We have transgender people in our program and we’ll have transgender people in our program going forward,” Scouting America President and CEO Roger Krone told The Associated Press.

Several of the negotiated changes mirror what the organization suggested to the Pentagon in January, including discontinuing its Citizenship in Society merit badge, introducing a Military Service merit badge and waiving registration fees for the children of military personnel.

Under Hegseth, the Pentagon has taken aim at the military’s partnership with Scouting America, decrying its historic rebrand in 2024 and other changes in recent years that he sees as part of “woke culture” efforts that he wants to root out.

Hegseth said in a video posted on X that Scouting America’s applications will list only options for male and female and the one checked must match the applicant’s birth certificate. He didn’t say how that would be enforced. The group would clarify that youths of opposite genders assigned at birth cannot share bathrooms, tents or other similar spaces, he said.

Krone said the group’s application already has only two boxes — one for boy and one for girl — and that they were already asking about sex assigned at birth. He didn’t offer clarity on how that was reviewed or enforced.

“We do not put boys and girls together in intimate spaces and in order to do that we need to have some knowledge of who they are,” he said.

Krone said “structures” in the organization accommodate transgender youth, noting that there are family troops that include both genders but offering no more details. He said there was nothing in discussions with the Pentagon that changes the way the programs are run.

Hegseth, meanwhile, said in his video that the Pentagon will “vigorously review” the changes Scouting America has made in six months and cease its support of the organization if it fails to comply.

“We hope that doesn’t happen, but it could,” Hegseth said. “Ideally, I believe the Boy Scouts should go back to being the Boy Scouts as originally founded, a group that develops boys into men. Maybe someday.”

In a statement Friday, Scouting America noted its need to comply with an executive order from President Donald Trump targeting DEI programs.

The Irving, Texas-based organization also pointed out that it maintained its new name and “preserved our service to the more than 200,000 girls who participate in our programs.”

The organization began allowing gay youths in 2013, ended a blanket ban on gay adult leaders in 2015 and announced in 2017 that it would accept transgender students. It began accepting girls as Cub Scouts as of 2018 and into the flagship Boy Scout program, renamed Scouts BSA, in 2019.

Scouting America said the policy changes deepen the organization’s partnership with the military, which has included Scouts meeting on or near military installations in the U.S. and abroad.

“Scouting America is one of the most reliable pipelines to the United States Armed Forces our country has ever known,” the organization added. “Scouts are significantly more likely to serve in uniform than the general population. Eagle Scouts are heavily represented in ROTC programs, service academies and military leadership tracks.”

Hegseth’s other anti-DEI efforts have ranged from ending all military training at “woke” Harvard and other Ivy League schools to claiming that the independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes will no longer include “woke distractions.” He rolled out the move with Scouting America on Friday as tensions have escalated with Iran and the Trump administration considers possible military action after massing the largest force of U.S. warships and aircraft in the Middle East in decades.

The Pentagon said earlier this month that it was reviewing its relationship with Scouting America, claiming it had “lost its way” in many ways and calling the organization’s DEI efforts “unacceptable.”

“Scouting America’s leadership has made decisions that run counter to the values of this administration,” the Feb. 6 statement said, “including an embrace of DEI and other social justice, gender-fluid ideological stances.”

The U.S. military and the Boy Scouts have had longtime ties, including the military providing logistical support for the National Boy Scout Jamboree since its inception in 1937. The military also has maintained a strong relationship with the Eagle Scouts, whose members often enlist.

In a statement last year, Scouting America raised concerns following a report from NPR that the Pentagon planned to cut support for Scouting programs on military bases as well as for the National Jamboree and would eliminate increases in pay grade for Eagle Scouts who enlist.

The group told Hegseth last month that after hearing his suggestions, it had come up with a plan, which, besides the badge changes, included holding a ceremony to rededicate itself to leadership, duty to God, duty to country and service, as well as dissolving its DEI board committee.

Krone said there are about 900,000 youths participating in scouting programs, down from just over 1 million a year ago.

Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America achieved a vaunted status in the U.S. over the decades, with pinewood derbies, the Scout Oath and Eagle Scouts becoming part of the lexicon.

Since then, the organization has faced controversies and significant changes.

Its ban on gay scouts ended in 2013. Two years later, it ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons. In 2017, the Boy Scouts announced that they would allow transgender children who identify as boys to enroll in their boys-only programs.

The Boy Scouts also faced a flood of sexual abuse claims and sought bankruptcy protection in the 2020s. In 2023, a judge upheld the $2.4 billion bankruptcy plan, allowing the organization to keep operating while compensating more than 80,000 men who filed claims saying they were sexually abused while in scouting.

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Stengle reported from Dallas. Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin in Washington and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.