Texas Gov. Rick Perry Pleads With Boy Scouts to Keep Gay Ban

Texas governor and failed GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry pleaded with the Boy Scouts organization on Saturday to maintain their ban on openly gay scouts and troop leaders.

Perry spoke Saturday to Texas scouts at a gathering at the state House of Representatives in Austin. Perry, an Eagle Scout himself who wrote a book about scouting in 2008, said that the Boy Scouts should not bend to "popular culture."

The organization is weighing whether to allow individual chapters to admit out participants. But Perry believes keeping gays away is part of what makes the Boy Scouts so special.

"Hopefully the [Boy Scouts'] board will follow their historic position of keeping the Scouts strongly supportive of the values that make scouting this very important and impactful organization."

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