After welcoming an annual gathering of hundreds of Boy Scouts to the Texas Capitol on Saturday, Gov. Rick Perry, an Eagle Scout himself, said the youth organization should stand firm on its ban on openly gay members and volunteers.

“Scouting is not a place were sexuality should be the intersection,” Mr. Perry said, according to a report in the San Antonio Express News.. “Scouting is about teaching a substantial amount of life lessons; sexuality is not one of them, never has been and doesn’t need to be.”

The Boy Scouts of America is expected to consider dropping its longstanding ban at a national board meeting that kicks off in Irving, Texas, on Monday.

The 62-year-old governor, who has not ruled out another run for the White House despite last year’s disastrous showing in the Republican presidential contest, said the Boy Scouts, as a private organization, should have the freedom to determine its own rules on membership.

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