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The Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday emphatically reaffirmed its policy of excluding gays after a confidential two-year review.
The Scouts' chief executive, Bob Mazzuca, cited support from parents as a key reason for keeping the policy and expressed hope that the prolonged debate might now subside. National spokesman Deron Smith said an 11-member committee formed by top Scout leaders decided that the exclusion policy "is absolutely the best policy" for the 102-year-old organization. The policy was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2000.
The president of the largest U.S. gay-rights group, Chad Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign, called the Scouts' decision "a missed opportunity of colossal proportions."
