BOY SCOUTS APPROVE PLAN TO ACCEPT OPENLY GAY BOYS

BOY SCOUTS APPROVE PLAN TO ACCEPT OPENLY GAY BOYS

GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) — In one of their most dramatic choices in a century, local leaders of the Boy Scouts of America voted Thursday to ease a divisive ban and allow openly gay boys to be accepted into the nation's leading youth organization.

Gay adults will remain barred from serving as Scout leaders. Of the local Scout leaders voting at their annual meeting in Texas, more than 60 percent supported the proposal.

Casting ballots were about 1,400 voting members of BSA's National Council who were attending their annual meeting at a conference center not far from BSA headquarters in suburban Dallas.

The vote will not end the wrenching debate over the Scouts' membership policy, and it could trigger defections among those on the losing side. Some conservative churches that sponsor Scout units wanted to continue excluding gay youths, and in some cases threatened to leave the BSA if the ban were lifted. More liberal Scout leaders — while supporting the proposal to accept gay youth — wanted the ban on gay adults lifted as well.

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http://bigstory.ap.org/article/vote-gay-scouts-comes-emotional-moment