The Boy Scouts of America have made a decision that will change them forever. The historic association will no longer be called Boy Scouts of America but, as of February 8, 2025, will become Scouting America. A change that will be made just when the organization celebrates the 115th anniversary of its founding.
The Boy Scouts of America today announced that it will rebrand to Scouting America, reflecting the organization’s ongoing commitment to welcome every youth and family in America to experience the benefits of Scouting. Learn more:https://t.co/EiE1iasb2x pic.twitter.com/D11RkvCr45
— Boy Scouts - BSA (@boyscouts) May 7, 2024
The Boy Scouts of America, a "more inclusive" organization
As the president and CEO of the Boy Scouts, Roger A. Krone, explained during an interview with AP, the change has a reason: after several years of modifications, they want to make it clear that they are a "more inclusive" organization and to achieve this, there is nothing better than eliminating the word "Boy" from its name:
In the next 100 years we want any youth in America to feel very, very welcome to come into our programs. Although our name will be new, our mission remains unchanged: we are committed to teaching young people to prepare for life. This will be a simple but very important evolution as we ensure everyone feels welcome in exploration.
Changing the name, Krone said, is the last step to being more inclusive. And it comes after, in 2013, the organization began to admit young homosexuals. Two years later, the Boy Scouts also began hiring gay instructors to teach some classes.
The most relevant change, however, came in 2017. That was the year the Boy Scouts of America announced they would allow girls to join their ranks in the Cub Scouts program as well as Scouts BSA in 2019. Since then, the news agency reports, the organization has served more than 176,000 girls and young women.
Complaints of sexual abuse
The change could also be part of a strategy to try to alleviate the controversy in which the historic organization found itself mired a few years ago. In 2020, CNN recalls, the association declared bankruptcy. The reason? It had just allocated more than $150 million to an attempt to resolve the sex scandal in which it had been involved and in which more than 84,000 people claimed to have been victims of abuse by members of the Boy Scouts.
The scandal ended with the dismissal of one of the directors as well as the creation of a Victims´ Compensation Trust established by a court. The Trust will pay $2.4 billion to the more than 82,000 survivors of the traumatic experience, according to the television network.
