Scroll To Top
Arts & Entertainment

New Scout Troop Welcomes Gays and Girls

New Scout Troop Welcomes Gays and Girls

5th-brooklyn-scoutsx400

Fed up with discrimination in the Boy Scouts of America, one cool dad starts his own troop that allows all sorts of kids, even the gay ones.

deliciousdiane

New Yorker Todd Schweikert, a one-time Boy Scout who wanted his 7-year-old son to experience the joys of scouting minus the discrimination that sometimes comes with it these days, has started a new Brooklyn-based scout troop that welcomes two groups often shut out of the Boy Scouts of America: gays and girls.

Schweikert told DNA Info, "I think the need and the want is there. A lot of people want their children to be in scouts, but a lot of people have issues with their policies."

He says he didn't want to start a local troop that ignored national policies, as some Boy Scout troop leaders do, because he didn't want any of his dues money going to support policies that banned LGBT parents and kids. So Schweikert found an alternative scouting service to work with called Baden-Powell Service Association. BPSA bills itself as co-ed, open, inclusive, and follows the traditional goals of scouting.

The new troop, dubbed the Fifth Brooklyn Scouts, aleady has 40 families interested in being involved. It meets each week at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. For info, check their Facebook page.

deliciousdiane
30 Years of Out100Out / Advocate Magazine - Jonathan Groff & Wayne Brady

From our Sponsors

Most Popular

Latest Stories

Diane Anderson-Minshall

Diane Anderson-Minshall is the CEO of Pride Media, and editorial director of The Advocate, Out, and Plus magazine. She's the winner of numerous awards from GLAAD, the NLGJA, WPA, and was named to Folio's Top Women in Media list. She and her co-pilot of 30 years, transgender journalist Jacob Anderson-Minshall penned several books including Queerly Beloved: A Love Across Genders.
Diane Anderson-Minshall is the CEO of Pride Media, and editorial director of The Advocate, Out, and Plus magazine. She's the winner of numerous awards from GLAAD, the NLGJA, WPA, and was named to Folio's Top Women in Media list. She and her co-pilot of 30 years, transgender journalist Jacob Anderson-Minshall penned several books including Queerly Beloved: A Love Across Genders.