Boy Scouts of America announced on Tuesday that it will undergo a rebrand to be more “inclusive.”
The national scouting organization underwent a major change in 2018 when it started allowing girls to join the Cub Scouts, which is for children aged 7 to 10. The following year, the Boy Scouts program for older kids ages 11 to 17 began admitting young women.
The new name will reflect these changes as the group, which formerly switched to “Scouts BSA” will now rebrand as “Scouting America,” effective February 8, 2025, the 115th anniversary of the organization.
BSA President and CEO Roger A. Krone said the name change was made in part to encourage girls to join the program since it will no longer have the name “boy” in it.
“While this may be a surprise to some of you, for us this is a straightforward evolution and the next natural step in ensuring all American youth feel welcomed and recognized in an organization that is meant to serve all Americans,” Krone said in a press release about the name change, per CNN.
The CEO added that the change will not alter the organization’s mission of preparing “young people over their lives to make ethical and moral choices by instilling the scout oath, and the scout law. America’s values are scouting values.”
The change to allow girls into Boy Scouts has been mired in controversy. Besides the backlash from leaders and participants, Girl Scouts filed a federal lawsuit claiming they were entitled to the sole use of the term “scout” when referencing leadership opportunities for girls after BSA started using the word “scout” more generally. The courts ruled in favor of BSA, saying they did not violate the Girls Scouts’ trademark.
“The benefit of the single-gender environment has been well-documented by educators, scholars, and other girl- and youth-serving organizations,” Girl Scouts said in a press release at the time, per Forbes.
More than 1 million children are enrolled in Boys Scouts of America, with 176,234 girls and young women represented in that number. BSA said in a news release that more than 6,000 young women earned the prestigious Eagle Scout rank, CNN reported.
Bob Brady, a scout leader in New Jersey, explained his decision to form an all-girls BSA troop.
“Five and a half years after we started, you see people in town who see us marching a parade, doing a service project saying ‘Girls can be Scouts? It’s called Boy Scouts,’” Brady said during a news conference. “It takes some explaining to do… so I think this is gonna be great to help with recruiting and let everyone know the inclusive program that we’ve become over the last decade.”
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“Young girls, young boys, there’s nothing about the Scout oath or a law that is inherently masculine or inherently feminine and applies across the board. Young girls in 2024 like to go camping, they like to go hiking,” he continued. “You know what, I’ve had more moms and women tell me over the last five or six years, I wish I had the opportunity to be in scouts when I was a kid.”
