The US was the only country to not allow gays to be in the youth scout programs. Many attribute the policy to the large number of troops sponsored by the Mormon Church in the US (something like half). A remarkable court decision allowed the scouts to continue to exclude gays until a bunch of eagles began publicly throwing their badges back at their headquarters. Most of the sexual abuse allegations arose during this early period. Then for about 10 years, the scouts modified their policy to allow gay scouts but not gay leaders. It's as if they were saying: "It's cool until you turn 18 and then you're a perv." Seemed hard to justify logically to me. The scouts eventually gave that up and now have also started allowing females into the scouts and dropping the "Boy" from the name. Where do we go from here? Hopefully a return to learning about the outdoors and other skill sets for independence instead of arguing wedgie politics in a kids organization.