The Boy Scouts are no more, and haven’t been for five years. My home troop is still there. The councils I served on and the camps I volunteered at are still there. I was and always will be an Eagle Scout. It’s a distinction and a responsibility that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
But since 2019, Boy Scouting is no longer Boy Scouting. It is now Scouts BSA, because it’s not just boys who can join anymore. For the first time in the organization’s history, girls can join as full members. Female Eagle Scouts joined the class of 2021, winning one of the most prestigious youth awards in the United States. And now, on February 8, 2025, the Boy Scouts of America, the broader organization that includes other programs like Venture and Explorer Scouting, is changing its name simply to Scouting America. References to “Boy” will now be removed from the organization entirely.
Philip Bunn recently argued that this change is much more than symbolic. For both of us, Boy Scouts offered a male-only space in which we could grow into better leaders and, in time, better men. But now that girls have been admitted to the program, that unique environment has been destroyed. “In the face of declining membership, declining interest, declining investment by former Scouts, and the increasing costs of expanding its offerings, the old Boy Scouts of America has been flattened,” he wrote. The organization “has stopped advocating its own rugged, wilderness-oriented, male-cultivating character,” and is now forced to cater to a thousand whims and the mounting pressures of a society that has no “boyhood” in its vocabulary. According to Bunn, it is now like any other youth club or sports team—only very old and, every day, a little more tired. It has lost its way.
This could be a real problem if it were true, but it simply isn’t. Scouts BSA is a gender-segregated organization just like the Boy Scouts. Troops can be all-male or all-female, but they may not be integrated. They may not hold meetings together, join the same patrols, or share youth leadership. If they do go on outings or camping trips together, strict youth protection and supervision rules must be enforced, as has always been the case. This is not just official policy, as the July 2023 Rules and Regulations state that this is a natural outgrowth of youth protection rules and common sense. The BSA recognizes that boys and girls are different and ensures that each troop has the space they need to thrive.
Furthermore, the Boy Scouts is not a one-size-fits-all program; it is a diverse tapestry of different local organizations focused on the wants and needs of the young people they serve. In fact, that is one of the defining characteristics of the Boy Scouts: the patrol method. The entire organization is built from the bottom up, with units of five to 15 young people who are fully responsible for leading themselves. These units plan their own outings, buy their own food, and elect their own leaders. They are the crucible in which Scouting character is formed.
Bunn worries that boys’ development will suffer if boys are exposed to the social anxiety that exists in mixed spaces, but the patrol method is already in place to provide a buffer against many of the pressures young men face — from female attention, but also from their friends, their media consumption, and their own self-doubt. Girls can be present at school, they can be present at summer camps, they can be present after a troop meeting — in fact, they always were, even before they were officially members. But the patrol still belongs to the boys who participate in it. It will still be a small, often wild, often unwashed group of adolescent boys who hike up creeks without maps and try to use live archery ranges as shelters during games of catch-the-flag. (In defense of the boy I found who thought this was a good idea, it was a Real (clever hiding place.) That space, free from the pressures of adolescence, was crucial to me as a young man. It made me who I am today, and to lose it would have meant losing a part of myself. But it is not lost. It is now ours to share.
But Scouting isn’t just about patrols. Will spreading our principles to new members dilute our programs? What about the “rugged, wilderness-oriented, man-cultivating character” that is so integral to Boy Scouts, and that Bunn praises in his essay? For me, that’s a major concern. Wilderness trips and outdoor experiences are how I learned what it means to be a Boy Scout. I served on the staff of regional summer camps for many years, even after I earned the rank of Eagle Scout and was officially too old for Boy Scouts. I taught horseback riding, first aid, wilderness survival, and many other skills. I expect the young people I work with to be prepared, as they should be, for physical challenges.
But I have met the girls who want to be a part of Scouting, and they have what it takes. They are the first on the range when it opens. They hike the extra 5 miles just to get to the top of the waterfall. They really love adventure. They did all this before they were allowed to earn ranks, when they were just little sisters and loud older cousins. They don’t shy away from tough, wilderness-oriented programs. They demand them, can’t find them in the organizations that claim to be for them, and want to join an organization that offers them wilderness adventure. If those activities are exclusively male, they don’t seem to care.
And that is the core mission of Scouting: to provide young people with experiences that build their character. Girls need those experiences just as much as boys. If they have the chance, they will seek them out. For many, the Boy Scouts were the only real opportunity to have those experiences.
The emblem of the Boy Scouts is the fleur-de-lis. It points the way, like compasses of old, and has guided generations of explorers on their journey. The two stars on the arms, Truth and Knowledge, serve as guiding principles for Boy Scouts as they walk through life and face challenges that no other organization could have prepared them for. This is what sets us apart from every other youth organization. This is our differentiator, and time has proven that the BSA is the only youth organization that will consistently teach these values to young people across the country.
The charge that the BSA lost its character by changing its name to Scouting America is false. Its mission is not to worship masculinity or create a “safe space” where boys can be congratulated on their boyhood. Its mission is to challenge youth—physically, intellectually, spiritually—to leave themselves behind and grow into better citizens. It’s hard. It’s meant to be hard. But young men aren’t the only ones who can benefit. Allowing girls into the organization and changing its name to honor those new members doesn’t change that.
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