Scouting Maverick: Scout Better

The case for equity and inclusion: Ending BSA’s specious coed ban

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by

Aren Cambre
in , , ,

In 2018 and 2019, BSA allowed girls into its boys-only programs. This inclusion was accompanied by a ban on coed Cub Scout dens or coed Scouts BSA troops.

The coed ban is specious: It rests on misinformation and on sexist, racist, and harmful folklore. Its pile-on effects reduce youth safety, harm members, and harm the program. In its campaign to perpetuate the ban, BSA gaslights families and volunteers. This and more signals cultural rot, which is catastrophic to an organization that protects youth and develops leaders.

To end these harms, restore trust, promote equity and inclusion, be relevant to today’s families, and live the values it teaches, BSA must drop the specious coed ban. This allows a choice of coed or single-gender. It also must correct the culture that allowed it to implement and perpetuate the ban.

The ban can and should be dropped rapidly. The change must not be delayed with a pilot program.

Read more on the specious and harmful coed ban:

Comments

4 responses to “The case for equity and inclusion: Ending BSA’s specious coed ban”

  1. Awake Energy Warrior Avatar
    Awake Energy Warrior

    Thank you so much for this! This is perfectly said. Reading this, written by a native-born US scouter with long BSA experience, is very heartening.

    I’m an old WOSM/WAGGS scout from another first-world country that combined it’s girl and boy scouting organizations so long ago that the words for gender-segregated scouting sound quaint. I’m now den leader and cubmaster in a BSA family pack that ignores a lot of this gender BS to just get on with the scouting and outdoor adventure, so I know that there is organic movement towards normalcy and a sound future for the BSA (that’s going to have the ditch the name eventually), but it’s hard to tell how wide this organic movement is. I’ve been told online that I didn’t develop the best character because my scouting experience wasn’t gender segregated, for example. I want to think that scouter is a total outlier, but BSA policy and talking makes me very unsure for all the reasons you outline above.

    It’s also so nice to see allyship done so well. Right, I should mention, I’m a woman. Relevant context.

    Reply
    1. Aren Cambre Avatar
      Aren Cambre

      Thank you for this comment!

      I’ve been told online that I didn’t develop the best character because my scouting experience wasn’t gender segregated, for example.

      What a stupid statement! I hope that wasn’t by someone currently in BSA!

      Reply
  2. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    While I see what you are saying, there is some goodness to single gender units that I do not feel are being highlighted here. Allow me to explain. As a father to two sons and one daughter, Scouting runs deep in my family with myself and my father being Eagle Scouts. I also grew up on the Texas/Mexico border and participated in a few international events where Mexican Scouts (purely coed) participated with us. We saw how the girls participated with their male counterparts seamlessly like how you or I would at the office, with no problems. So, I’ve always been a fan of girls participating in the BSA program since I believe in what it teaches. As my kids got older, my daughter was in Girl Scouts, and quite frankly didn’t like it…she wanted to go camping and do outdoor cooking like her brothers did in Boy Scouts. When BSA lifted the ban on girls, my daughter rushed out to join. Now an experienced Life Scout in BSA and a Silver Award recipient in Girl Scouts, she prefers the BSA program, hands down.

    She loves her all-girl troop and has made some great friends. In fact, her bonds of friendship are pretty tight with them. When I asked her if she would want her troop to go coed, she adamantly said “NO WAY”. She loves having fun with her female friends without the unspoken pressure to try to “fit in with the boys” or compete against them (remember, kids see most peer events as unspoken competitions).

    My son also had the same view. While they both have no problems with their siblings being in Scouting, they rather enjoy having a time where they are not right next to each other…a place to let their hair down, so to speak. Now, I know that some people see things differently, and for that reason, I think (as we are seeing with the coed pilot programs) that units should have the ability to make their own decision whether to be coed or not. If you want your kids to join a coed unit, then go to a coed troop. If after a while your son or daughter get tired of the kids of the opposite sex, then go to a single gender troop. It’ll take time to figure out what individual kids want to do and this offers max flexibility, but to force all units to be coed may not be the correct answer. Some parents would love it (one stop shopping for their kids of both sexes), but others (and the Scouts themselves) may not.

    Reply
    1. Aren Cambre Avatar
      Aren Cambre

      I support choice.

      BSA was wrong to ban the choice of full coed.

      If single-gender units are your jam, go for it!

      Reply

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