Trail Life Is Getting More Attention

Every time the organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts makes the news, Mark Hancock knows he’s going to get some phone calls.

Those calls began in the summer of 2013 when Hancock and others announced the formation of Trail Life USA in response to the Boy Scouts of America officially allowing gay youth to participate. It happened again in 2015 when BSA ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders and in 2018 with the announcement that girls would be accepted as Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts.

24-Hour Security Given To Scouts' Founder Statue

The memorable and widely respected statue of the founder of the Scout movement, Robert Baden-Powell, will now be given 24-hour protection after some small, loud and attention-seeking radicals are asking for its removal. The misguided and uterly ignorant bunch of rioters in United Kingdom insist that all monuments with racist connotations be taken down.

The statue of Baden-Powell -- a British Army officer who critics claim was a racist without any proof -- has been labeled as a target for rabid protesters and police advised the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council to watch over it.

Mormons Withdrew Funds From Boy Scouts

The Mormon church, the biggest sponsor of Boy Scout troops in the United States, announced last 11 May that it is pulling as many as 185,000 older youths from the organization as part of an effort to start its own scouting-like program.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints move was triggered by the Boy Scouts' decision in 2015 to allow gay troop leaders, despite Mormon-sponsored troops have remained free to exclude such adults on religious grounds.

Pres. Trump Gets All-Out Support From GSUSA

Support for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump are pouring in ahead of his inauguration on 20 January. Various artists have confirmed their participation, while civic organizations and civil society groups hailed the term of the 45th President as a period of renewal and progress for all legal American residents.

Even the Girl Scouts of USA (GSUSA) were ecstatic to join the inaugural parade. The organization have pursued their quest to be recognized as one of the participants as early as two months ago, when the American voters decided to drop the depressing agenda of the liberals for a more vibrant and progressive platform of the conservatives.

BSA Found Courage to Ban LGBT Scout

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) found their courage again and implement the appropriate policies approved decades ago by banning LGBT children or children who were brainwashed by their parents to behave they have the opposite sex.

Recently, a ranting woman from New Jersey has been speaking to local media about how her transgender son was removed from his local Boy Scout troop because of his gender identity, which is really a relative term and not based on any scientific research.

Girl Scouts Should Expect A Dip In Funding

The Archdiocese of St. Louis in the U.S. has encouraged Roman Catholics to scale back ties with the Girl Scouts, advising church members to think twice about membership and even about buying their cookies.

The warnings came in a letter from Archbishop Robert J. Carlson and in a statement on the archdiocese’s website about how the church is distancing itself from the Girl Scouts, which it says supports transgender rights, homosexuality and other stances at odds with Catholic values.

BSA Bans Gay Advocacies

After losing most of their members to emerging groups such as Trail Life USA, the Boy Scouts of America decided recently to revise its rules to emphasize a duty to God and ban political advocacy. This means that organizers who are applying for a troop with unwanted Gay leaders will not be entertained.

The changes come at the end of a turbulent year that saw the organization lift a blanket ban on gay leaders only to see its membership reduced to historical low.

Gay Rights Are Shrinking Boy Scouts Donation

Figures revealed that donations dropped so low in the nation's largest Boy Scouts of America local council — the Orem-based Utah National Parks Council. It left the officials with only one option: layoffs.

"We're substantially behind what we've done in the past," Stan Lockhart, volunteer president of the council that serves 90,000 youth, said about its annual Friends of Scouting fundraising drive. That began in September and will continue through the end of the year, but the bulk of contributions usually comes early.

Trail Life Shoud Brace for Possible BSA's Downfall

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has just lifted its ban on openly gay adult leaders last 27 July, but will still continue to allow church-sponsored units to exclude gay individuals. The move was considered a compromising effort to resolve an issue that has plagued the group since the '80s and '90s, when it began explicitly banning openly gay youths and adults.

Two years ago, the Boy Scouts compromised by accepting openly gay minors while maintaining the ban on gay adults in paid or volunteer leadership roles. However, this spring BSA's president, former Defense secretary Robert Gates, said that position was no longer sustainable, as many states are passing laws that ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Outdoor Preservation Partnership with TLUSA

Trail Life USA (TLUSA) takes another major step in building its outdoor adventure program by announcing a partnership with Tread Lightly!. Together, Tread Lightly! and TLUSA will promote outdoor education, awareness, and habitat restoration projects that will preserve wilderness lands and teach environmentally friendly practices for all outdoor activities.

"Our partnership will teach outdoor stewardship and provide lasting benefits to our communities," said Mark Hancock, Chief Operating Officer of TLUSA. "'To be a good steward of creation’ is a key tenet of our Trailman Oath."

Anti-Gay Scouts Group Attracts More to its Cause

The organization is fairly new and was supposed to offer alternative scouting skills, but it appears that Trail Life USA is caught unaware about the high demand for its membership. Described by its leadership as an "unapologetically biblical" alternative to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), Trail Life has reported major growth since its launch at the start of the year.

The Orlando, Florida-based group for young males, has seen large numbers of troops being chartered over the past few months and expects hundreds more by the end of the year. Current count peg the figures to around 10,000 individual members in less than 5 months.

Trail Life Offers An Alternative To BSA

When the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) announced last year their decision to lift a ban on gay youth membership, everyone knew that something will crop up to challenge its supremacy.

Well, a serious contender did emerge after more than 1,200 ex-participants of the BSA, hailing from 44 states, met in Nashville in September 2013 for a two-day "national leadership conference," at which the "new scouts’" name, logo, and uniforms were selected.

Trail Life Won't Tolerate Intolerant Gays

The founder of a the most sought-after anti-gay scouting alternative to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) said his youth group will not "tolerate" openly gay members.

In excerpts of an interview with Crosstalk's Jim Schneider last March 2014, Trail Life USA founder John Stemberger said, "We view a same-sex attraction as being very different than this new socio-political construct of 'gay,' which is a political movement ... an in-your-face, intolerant agenda."

Possible Alternatives to the BSA

A few days ago, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) lifted a ban on openly gay youth, a change that will begin January 2014. A ban on gay Scout leaders remains in place.

Don't get me wrong on this. I don't have anything against the move by more than 61 percent of the Boy Scouts national council to approve a resolution overturning the longstanding ban at its annual meeting in Texas nor I am trying to "gain anything from someone else's misfortune". In fact, it could be the right move by the BSA in the right direction.

Should BSA Allow Gay Members?

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has been under some pressure from several groups lately to amend their stance on banning gay scouts. Last Friday (19 April 2013), as they try to seek for an elusive middle ground on an issue that has divided its ranks and drawn heated national debate, the organization proposed ending its longstanding ban on openly gay scouts but continuing to bar gay adults from serving as leaders.

The proposal was put on the table but it must still gain the approval of the roughly 1,400 voting members of the Scouts' National Council at a meeting in Texas the week of May 20.