In the Wake of Controversial Vote on Gay Ban, Boy Scouts of America Braces for Backlash

Boy Scouts of America is widely expected to lose members and charitable donations after it decided last month to allow gay members under age 18.

Several religious organizations, most notably the Assemblies of God, have announced they will cut off financial support to Scout troops because of objections to admitting gay boys. Religious groups sponsor 70 percent of the Scouts’ 116,000 troops and packs.

The Southern Baptist Convention last week voted to let local churches decide whether to sponsor troops. Those that do must work toward reversing the policy. Churches that leave the Scouts are encouraged to support an alternative group called the Royal Ambassadors, which has seen its membership expand since the decision.

‘Imperfect Solution’

Meanwhile, several gay-activist groups have continued pressing the charity to expand its policy by allowing gay adults to serve as troop leaders.

“It’s an imperfect solution,” said Andy Price, scout executive of the Golden Spread Council of Boy Scouts, in Amarillo, Tex. “It doesn’t really make anyone happy.”

That includes some of his 1,100 donors in the Texas panhandle. One donor had written a $20,000 check to support the program but decided not to send it to the council until after the Boy Scouts of America voted on its board policy. After the national organization announced it would admit gay scouts beginning in 2014, the donor tore up the check.

“That gift is gone,” Mr. Price said.

Others may also end their support. “Looking forward to next year, we will budget to be down,” he said. “To what degree, we don’t know.”

Expected Drops

Howard Menzer, president of Scouting for All, a group that has been pressing the Boy Scouts of America to admit atheists as well as gay people, said he expects the same problems at troops nationwide, because both conservatives and liberals are angered by the compromise approach the organization took.

“That will translate into a lack of funding and it will translate into lower membership,” said Mr. Menzer, a gay man who served as a scout leader for decades until leaving the position in 1999.

Officials at Boy Scouts of America said they had no comment on how the membership policy changes were affecting fundraising, but the charity sent tips to local Scout groups soon after the decision to help them handle questions from supporters. And not all religious groups are abandoning the Scouts. Mormon and Methodist churches announced their continued support.

Decisions Revisited

Another group facing a new set of decisions after the Scout policy change: Local United Way affiliates, many of which had stopped supporting the Boy Scouts program because it excluded gay people.

At least 54 United Ways had pulled money from the Scouts before the policy was altered, according to Scouting for All.

Among the organizations reconsidering: The Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way, in central Pennsylvania. Its board is scheduled to decide by secret ballot this week whether to release $11,300 it withheld from the local Boy Scouts council before the national organization changed its policy.

United Way had awarded $25,000 to the Susquehanna Council of Boy Scouts in 2012 and had already distributed $8,700 that donors had earmarked for the troop this year before it decided to hold off.

United Way decided to “pause” in its support of the local Scouts to reexamine its adherence to a policy of not supporting groups that discriminate.

“This is a hallmark discussion for our organization,” said Keri Albright, president of the Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way. “I’ve been here for 10 years and it’s easily the most difficult and challenging discussion our board has ever had.”

Ms. Albright’s board already met once this month to debate whether the new Boy Scouts policy remains discriminatory because it excludes gay adults.

“Are we going to fund programs that alienate or exclude certain members of our society, or are we going to live our policy of Live United?” she said.

She worries that if her group cuts off support for the Scouts, some donors will stop supporting United Way.

Many people in the largely conservative and rural region called to oppose the United Way’s decision to withhold support for the Scouts this year, and some threatened to stop supporting the United Way altogether if it cut off the money.

“It breaks my heart that people are judging us on this one issue,” said Ms. Albright, noting that just 2 percent of her United Way’s budget goes to the Scouts each year.

Willful Disregard

In Connecticut, the United Way of Greenwich will not face the same complicated decision if its local Scouts council applies for grants. That’s because as soon as the national Scouting group announced its vote on the membership policy, the Greenwich Council of Boy Scouts said it would not follow the ban on gay adults.

“While the Greenwich Council of the Boy Scouts supported the proposed resolution as a first step in the right direction, we were very disappointed that it did not revoke this discriminatory standard in its entirety,” the council said in a statement on its Web site.

“The vast majority of our council believes that discrimination of any nature is inherently contrary to the tenets and purposes of Scouting and at odds with the values of our community.”