WASHINGTON — A gay rights activist has taken the Department of Defense to federal court, demanding to see a copy of an agreement between the Pentagon and Scouting America — and to find out whether that deal actually requires the organization to ban transgender members.
James Dale filed his complaint in a New York City federal court on Thursday, arguing that the Pentagon and Scouting America have given the public two very different stories about what was agreed to, while the government refuses to release the actual document.
The Pentagon struck a deal with Scouting America back in February, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announcing that the agreement would steer the organization away from diversity programs and other policies he described as “woke.” Hegseth warned that the military would cut off its long-standing support of the organization if it did not comply within six months — a deadline that falls in late August.
Hegseth placed particular focus on the issue of transgender youth, stating that the organization would require members to be identified by their “biological sex at birth and not gender identity.”
However, Scouting America — formerly called the Boy Scouts of America — said at the time that the agreement did not alter its existing policies on transgender youth and that those members remain welcome in its programs.
“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 in February.
In his court filing, Dale argues that both versions of events “cannot be true, and the stakes are of profound public importance.”
Hegseth had also said in February that he would “vigorously review” any changes Scouting America made, and did not rule out pulling military support.
“We hope that doesn’t happen, but it could,” Hegseth said at the time. “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.”
The relationship between the military and the scouting organization runs deep, with the armed forces historically providing logistical assistance for the National Boy Scout Jamboree, hosting scouts on or near military installations, and maintaining close ties with Eagle Scouts — many of whom go on to enlist.
Dale had submitted a Freedom of Information Act request in late March seeking the memorandum of understanding between Scouting America and the Pentagon. That request went nowhere.
“The Department has invoked no exemption, produced no record, and missed every deadline,” his complaint stated. “Mr. Dale brings this action to enforce the public’s right to know, before the Department’s August deadline expires.”
The Pentagon declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying it does not discuss active litigation, and instead pointed to the video Hegseth released in February outlining the changes he said the organization was making. Scouting America did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Dale’s complaint also raises a broader legal question: whether the federal government even has the authority to require a private organization like Scouting America to accept or exclude certain members.
Dale’s history with the Boy Scouts goes back decades. In 1990, the organization expelled him — then an Eagle Scout serving as an assistant scoutmaster — after learning he was co-president of Rutgers University’s gay and lesbian organization. He sued in 1992, alleging discrimination, but ultimately lost at the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the organization had the right to set membership and leadership standards that excluded gay individuals.
“Here, if the Department’s account is true, the federal government has now obtained by contract what the Court once held it could not command by law,” Dale’s lawsuit states. “And if it is not, then the Department has misled the public about what Scouting America has agreed to do.”
