The National Executive Council of the Boy Scouts of America has announced that they are considering a proposal to remove the current restriction against membership by homosexuals (both scouts and scout leaders). The actual decision has been postponed until the annual executive council meeting in May.

As things stand currently, any pro-homosexual group which sues the Boy Scouts must do it at the national level since that is where the restriction is currently in force. However, should the proposed change be implemented, the decision as to whether or not to admit homosexuals will reside with the various regional councils and local troops. This opens local organizations to legal challenges.

Take, for example, a regional BSA council. The council will most likely not have the funds to fend off legal challenges to its own policies which are not backed by the national BSA council. So the regional council will in all likelihood punt the ball to local troops by declaring that the council will not oppose membership by homosexuals and will instead let local troops decide for themselves.

Then the legal battle moves to the local troop and the organization which sponsors it. Every local BSA troop must have a sponsoring organization. Most are sponsored by churches. Many of those churches also sponsor parochial schools. So the sponsoring church tells the troop that it cannot afford to fight a legal battle over homosexuality in the troop. It further cannot condone homosexuality in the troop because then it would be legally required to condone homosexual teachers in its parochial school. That would most likely lead to the destruction of the school and possibly the church itself.

The only option left to the sponsoring church would be to withdraw its sponsorship of the troop. In all probability that would result in the disbanding of the troop altogether.