I guess, in such a big country, the picture is far from homogeneous.
There is an issue [to my eyes] about the wording of the respective organisation's policies:
BSA policy:
Youth may not be denied membership in the BSA on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.
That's the whole policy for young people.
That phrase is effectively hidden on the BSA website. I had to use google to find the policy - a search for "gay", "LGBT" of the actual BSA site produces no results, and a search for "sexuality" produces only three hits - the first pre-dates the current policy, clarifying the above statement for discussion, the third is a marketing report that does not mention sexuality, but the second is a policy document issued to leaders that contains this:
Five Key Facts
1. The National Executive Board ratified a resolution that removes the national restriction on avowedly homosexual adult leaders and employees. The resolution is effective immediately.
2. Chartered organizations will continue to select their adult leaders. Religious chartered organizations, solely, may continue to use religious beliefs as criteria for selecting adult leaders, including matters of sexuality.
3. Scouting’s members and parents may continue to select local units, chartered to organizations with similar beliefs, that best meet the needs of their families.
4. The youth membership policy adopted in 2013 is not affected by this resolution and remains unchanged.
5. The ideals and principles of “duty to God” and “a Scout is reverent” set forth in the Scout Oath and Scout Law remain central to Scouting. Scouting is not an appropriate environment to discuss sexual conduct. While there is no national or local council restriction on avowedly homosexual adults serving as leaders or employees, everyone agrees to follow national policies and comply with the BSA’s behavioral standards.
See:
http://bsaseabase.org/filestore/financeimpact/doc/leadership_standards_development_toolkit.docxFurther down the same document:
Religious chartered organizations may continue to use religious beliefs as criteria for selecting adult leaders, including matters of sexuality.
The BSA will continue to legally defend—or indemnify—the rights of its religious chartered organizations to choose leaders whose beliefs are consistent with their own.
The adopted policy allows religious chartered organizations to use religious beliefs as criteria for selecting adult leaders. The BSA will defend and protect from loss religious chartered organizations that select their leaders based on good-faith religious beliefs.
So, the weasel-wording of the policy ("alone"), combined with the open permission to discriminate on grounds of religion (and 70% of BSA groups are church-sponsored) means that the effective policy of the BSA is;
We are not banning you from scouting because of your sexuality, we are banning you from scouting because you do not meet our religious standards, which you fail because of your sexuality.
On top of that, the policy document also states a number of times that sexuality may not be discussed within a scouting context, and that if young people raise the issue, it says;
Scouts will be directed to their religious leaders or parents to seek guidance on these matters.
So, if these young people open up to the people they thought they could trust with their personal growth, they get sent instead to the people most likely to give them damaging advice (note that religious leaders are given priority over parents!).
The ban on
discussing sexuality also means that any scout or leader that comes out to their group or fellow leaders as gay has, despite the supposed policy allowing membership, automatically given grounds for dismissal from the organisation, no matter what the policy of their group's sponsoring organisation.
Now, as we have seen in other comments in this topic (and just like any similar organisation around the world) there are groups who choose to ignore or even flaunt such policies, but 70% of the BSA's groups are sponsored by religious organisations (most significantly the Mormons) that openly and actively work against the LGBT community.
Remembering that this is all my personal opinion, it seems that the BSA policy is purely a box-ticking exercise designed to quiet media furore and mollify Eagle Scout Award holders, whilst quietly allowing the sexual discrimination to continue, disguised as religious inclusion.
In sharp contrast, this is the UK Scout association's policy;
The Scout Association is committed to extending Scouting, its Purpose and Method to young people in all parts of society.
No young person should receive less favourable treatment on the basis of, nor suffer disadvantage by reason of:
Class or socio-economic status;
ethnic origin, nationality (or statelessness) or race;
gender (including gender reassignment);
marital or civil partnership status;
sexual orientation;
disability (including mental or physical ability);
political belief;
pregnancy;
religion or belief (including the absence of belief).
All Members of the Movement should seek to practise that equality, especially in promoting access to Scouting for young people in all parts of society. The Scout Association opposes all forms of racism.
No person volunteering their services should receive less favourable treatment on the basis of, nor suffer disadvantage by reason of:
age;
class or socio-economic status;
ethnic origin, nationality (or statelessness) or race;
gender (including gender reassignment);
marital or civil partnership status;
sexual orientation;
disability (including mental or physical ability);
political belief;
pregnancy;
religion or belief (including the absence of belief).
In addition, all leaders get training on how to sensitively deal with members bringing up the issue of sexuality, how to support them, and a range of specialist organisations who can help.