Boy Scouts of America changes name after 114 years to 'boost inclusion'

Boy Scouts of America is changing its name for the first time in its 114-year history in a bid to 'boost inclusion'.

The Texas-based organization is set to become Scouting America as it hopes to improve participation amid flagging membership.

The historic change is the latest in a series designed to take the troop into the 21st century, including allowing gay youth and welcoming girls throughout its ranks. 

It comes as the organization is emerging from bankruptcy following a flood of sexual abuse claims. 

'In the next 100 years we want any youth in America to feel very, very welcome to come into our programs,' Roger Krone, who took over last fall as president and chief executive officer, said in an interview before the announcement. 

The announcement came at its annual meeting in Florida on the fifth anniversary of the organization welcoming girls into Cub Scouting.

Boy Scouts of America began allowing gay youth in 2013 and ended a blanket ban on gay adult leaders in 2015. 

In 2017, it made the historic announcement that girls would be accepted as Cub Scouts as of 2018 and into the flagship Boy Scout program - renamed Scouts BSA - in 2019.

Eagle-eyed South Park fans have since come forward to suggest that the cartoon may have predicted the Scouts' move towards progression.

One episode shows the characters attend their first ever Scout meeting orchestrated by a character named 'Big Gay Al'. 

The move has been met with some backlash, with calls to boycott the institution in the same way that Bud Light customers chose to stop supporting the company after they partnered with a transgender influencer.

'Boy Scouts are removing the word boy from their name after 114 years. Now they will be called Scouting America,' one irate X user wrote.

 'Bud light them too. Seriously, BUD LIGHT every piece of garbage institution in this country that is doing everything they can to tear down and torch our culture, our traditions, common sense, biology, and our way of life.' 

'"Everyone can be their authentic self and they will be welcomed here" This is antithetical to Boy Scouts,' another fumed.

'The boy is to be shaped by scouting, HE should change, that's the point. Not the other way around. This is little more than a humiliation ritual.' 

Radio presenter Dana Loesch pointed out that a separate organization for Girl Scouts already exists. 

There were nearly 1,000 young women in the inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts in 2021, including Selby Chipman. 

The all-girls troop she was a founding member of in her hometown of Oak Ridge, North Carolina, has grown from five girls to nearly 50, and she thinks the name change will encourage even more girls to realize they can join.

'Girls were like: `You can join Boy Scouts of America?´' said Chipman, now a 20-year-old college student and assistant scoutmaster of her troop.

Within days of the announcement that girls would be allowed, Bob Brady went to work. 

A father of two girls and a proud Eagle Scout himself, the New Jersey attorney eagerly formed an all-girls troop. 

At their first weekend gathering with other troops, the boys were happy to have the girls involved but some adult leaders seemed concerned, he recalled.

Their worries seemed to melt away as soon as the girls led a traditional cheer around the campfire.

'You could see a change in the attitude of some of the doubters who weren´t sure and they realized, wait, these kids are exactly the same, they just happen to have ponytails,' said Brady.

His daughters are among the 13 girls in his troop and 6,000 girls nationwide who have achieved the vaunted Eagle Scout rank.

Like other organizations, the scouts lost members during the pandemic, when participation was difficult. 

After a highpoint over the last decade of over 2 million members in 2018, the organization currently services just over 1 million youths, including more than 176,000 girls and young women. Membership peaked in 1972 at almost 5 million.

The move by the Boy Scouts to accept girls throughout their ranks strained a bond with the Girl Scouts of the USA, which sued, saying it created marketplace confusion and damaged their recruitment efforts. 

They reached a settlement agreement after a judge rejected those claims, saying both groups are free to use words like 'scouts' and 'scouting.'

While camping remains an integral activity for the Boy Scouts, the organization offers something for everyone today, from high adventures to merit badges for robotics and digital technology.

'About anything kids want to do today, they can do in a structured way within the scouting program,' Krone said.

The Boy Scouts´ $2.4 billion bankruptcy reorganization plan took effect last year, allowing the organization to keep operating while compensating the more than 80,000 men who say they were sexually abused as children while scouting.

Angelique Minett, the first woman chairperson of Scouts BSA, is excited about the future of scouting and the engagement from the group's youth council on issues ranging from sustainability to the fit on some of the uniforms.

'When we think scouts we think knots and camping, but those are a means to an end,' Minett said. 

'We are actually teaching kids a much bigger thing. We are teaching them how to have grit, and we´re teaching them life skills and we´re teaching them how to be good leaders.'

The organization won't officially become Scouting America until February 8, 2025, the organization's 115th birthday. But Krone said he expects people will start immediately using the name.

'It sends this really strong message to everyone in America that they can come to this program, they can bring their authentic self, they can be who they are and they will be welcomed here,' he said.