THE local Boy Scout movement still has a closed door policy against openly gay members. It is therefore closely monitoring events in the United States where homosexuals are petitioning the courts seeking to become scouts.
This is according to Dr Nigel Taylor, Chief Commissioner of the Barbados Boy Scouts’ Association, who was speaking both during and after an awards ceremony at Combermere School for the presentation of National Centennial Scout Awards to scout leaders and lay persons.
Speaking to the SATURDAY?SUN, he said scouting officials were also monitoring a situation in Britain where the Scout Association was considering an alternative oath for atheists.
The concession to non-believers marks a break with a tradition begun in 1908 when the movement’s founder Robert Baden-Powell wrote a Scout Promise that required a vow to “do my duty to God”.
