The Pentagon has struck a deal with Scouting America that will preserve the organization’s access to military bases and continued support from the armed forces, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday.
Hegseth stated the agreement requires the youth organization to eliminate what he called “radical woke ideology” from its programs and establish membership criteria “based solely on biological sex at birth.”
However, Scouting America offered a different interpretation of the same deal, maintaining that transgender youth will continue to have a place in the organization that was previously called Boy Scouts of America.
“Our mission and commitment to serving all youth remains unchanged,” the organization declared in a press release describing the agreement, which they said was necessary to maintain their longstanding relationship with the U.S. military.
Scouting America President and CEO Roger Krone emphasized this point further, stating: “We have transgender people in our program, and we’ll have transgender people in our program going forward.”
The youth organization has undergone significant changes in recent years that drew criticism from conservative groups. In 2015, it removed restrictions on openly gay adult leaders and staff members. Two years later, it welcomed its first transgender participant, and in 2018 began accepting girls into its programs. The organization stopped using the “Boy Scouts” designation in 2019, though Girl Scouts of the USA continues as a distinct organization.
According to Hegseth, ongoing military support for Scouting America – including permission to hold national Scout jamborees and other activities on military installations – depends on the organization following the agreement’s requirements.
A key component involves adhering to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14173 from January 2025, which aims to eliminate race and gender-based preferences in policies and programs created under “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives.
“That means no more DEI in Scouting, zero,” Hegseth declared.
In his Friday video statement, Hegseth claimed Scouting had abandoned its core purpose as an organization that “develops boys into men,” instead adopting “an insidious radical woke ideology that is anti-America and anti-American.”
“They even welcomed the destructive myth of gender fluidity and transgenderism to infiltrate their membership,” he stated.
To remedy this situation, Hegseth said Scouting America would “modify its policy to make clear that membership will be based solely on biological sex at birth and not gender identity.”
“Any application will have only two sex designations, male and female, and the application must match the applicant’s birth certificate,” he explained.
Hegseth also specified that “biological boys and girls will not be allowed to occupy intimate spaces together, such as toilets, showers and camping tents.”
Krone responded by noting that Scout applications already offer only male or female options and currently request information about birth sex.
“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,” Krone stated.
Beyond these changes, Scouting America indicated it has implemented various unspecified “programmatic updates to comply with Executive Order 14173.”
Both parties confirmed additional modifications, including eliminating the “Citizenship in Society” merit badge, which Hegseth characterized as promoting DEI principles, and creating a new “Military Service” merit badge. Registration costs will also be waived for children from active-duty, Guard and Reserve military families.
Since its establishment in 1910, Scouting America has grown into one of the nation’s largest youth organizations, having served approximately 130 million young people throughout its history.
