Pentagon and Hegseth consider maintaining ties to Scouting: NPR
An Eagle Scout Award is seen pinned to a uniform. The Pentagon, which has thought of slicing ties to Scouting America, is transferring towards maintaining the connection.
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David Ryder/Getty Images
An Eagle Scout Award is seen pinned to a uniform. The Pentagon, which has thought of slicing ties to Scouting America, is transferring towards maintaining the connection.
David Ryder/Getty Images
After months of backlash, together with from some Republicans, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appears to be easing off his effort to sever the Pentagon’s century-long relationship with Scouting America, the youth group previously often called the Boy Scouts.
Documents reviewed by NPR final fall detailed Hegseth’s intention to lower the Scouts off for abandoning what one memo known as “masculine virtues” and for attacking “boy-friendly spaces.” The proposal would have barred Scout troops from assembly on US bases, ended navy help for the Scout Jamboree and eradicated a long-standing coverage of providing superior rank to Eagle Scouts who enlist.
About 25,000 youngsters of US service members are presently concerned in Scouting America applications, in accordance to the group.
A brand new doc just lately obtained by NPR exhibits contingency plans to withdraw assist are nonetheless being developed. But in accordance to a Department of Defense supply who requested not to be recognized for worry of retribution, extra effort is now going into negotiating a memorandum of understanding that can permit the partnership to proceed.
According to the DOD supply, Pentagon calls for embody requiring new Scouts to register below the intercourse assigned at beginning. The present Scouting software kind permits solely “male” or “female” gender selections, and most troops are single gender. However, their official coverage says all youth are welcome, no matter “gender or orientation.”
This concession would fulfill Hegseth — and whether or not it could have an effect on transgender youth — stays unclear. The Pentagon didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the problem. A spokesperson for Scouting America declined to remark.
Hegseth has been a vocal critic of Scouting’s 2019 determination to admit ladies and later to rebrand as Scouting America. As a Fox News host, he mentioned the Boy Scouts had been “cratering itself for quite some time,” arguing that Scouting was diluted by progressive politics. An inner Pentagon memo reviewed by NPR acknowledged: “The organization once endorsed by President Theodore Roosevelt no longer supports the future of American boys.”
When NPR reported on the memo final yr, the Defense Department declined to remark, saying that they might not authenticate the paperwork and that they could have been “pre-decisional.”
Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican on the Armed Services Committee, mentioned he confirmed NPR’s reporting with the Pentagon, nevertheless. He mentioned he’d been listening to from indignant constituents.
“Some big-time Trump supporters in Omaha called me, enraged that Hegseth would be picking a fight with the Scouts,” Bacon mentioned. “He’s got bigger fish to fry. I’ve heard a lot of dumb stuff, but this is up there.”
Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the highest Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, criticized the Pentagon’s place and mentioned he believes it is inappropriate for the DOD to press a youth group this manner.
“The single biggest problem is that Hegseth is hell-bent on driving forward a right-wing cultural revolution that is very divisive,” Smith mentioned.
Failure to attain a deal would have main ramifications for this summer time’s National Scout Jamboree. The campout attracts as many as 20,000 youths and grownup leaders to a distant web site in West Virginia each 4 years — and requires intensive planning. According to letters between Scouting and the DOD within the paperwork reviewed by NPR, assist for this summer time’s gathering was first requested in late 2023. If the Pentagon withdraws assist, the Scouts would have to scramble to change medical care, transportation and different emergency providers.
