.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A local advocacy group for transgender people says the Boy Scouts of America is “on the right side of history” after changing its membership policy to allow transgender children who identify as males to enroll in its scouting programs.

The national Boy Scouts organization announced last week it will no longer rely on the gender listed on a child’s birth certificate for enrollment in single-gender programs and instead will use the gender indicated on membership applications.

Adrien Lawyer, co-director of the Albuquerque-based Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico, welcomed the policy change.

“We congratulate the Boy Scouts of America on making the right decision,” said Lawyer. “It puts them on the right side of history.”

ADVERTISEMENTSkip

................................................................

He noted that the Albuquerque Public Schools also has new directives this year “that give strong guidance on how to treat transgender students in the district.”

Chris Shelby, scout executive for the Great Southwest Council of Boy Scouts, said New Mexico program directors have told him it’s too early to tell how the new policy will affect local scouting troops.

“Statistically, a small percentage of the population is transgender, so I don’t know what the demand will be for transgender scouting, but whatever it is, we will accommodate them and welcome them into our program,” he said.

Shelby added that the New Mexico council had never asked to see a birth certificate, although the gender question is asked on membership applications because the council also offers co-ed programs.

The moves by both the Boy Scouts and APS are part of a growing national trend as school districts, clubs and organizations try to accommodate transgender people.

The Girl Scouts of America decided in 2011 to allow transgender girls to join troops on a case-by-case basis. Its national website states that “if the child is recognized by the family and school/community as a girl and lives culturally as a girl, then Girl Scouts is an organization that can serve her in a setting that is both emotionally and physically safe.”

The New Mexico Boy Scouts council represents about 425 packs, troops, teams and crews – more than 7,200 youth in northern and central New Mexico, southwest Colorado, and the Navajo Nation in Arizona and Utah, Shelby said. About 80 percent of those scouting groups are affiliated with churches.

Shelby said he’d heard from only one faith-based organization, a Methodist church, “and I was told that they will follow Boy Scout policy.”

The Rev. John Schwarting, executive pastor at St. John’s United Methodist Church in Albuquerque, said Monday that the Boy Scout policy change “is not a problem for me or anybody on my staff.”

The church, which sponsors a Boy Scout troop, supports “the whole life of a person” and does not look at any one characteristic to define a child.

“We would not change our sponsorship at all because of this,” he said.

Many churches within the Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe sponsor scouting troops. Asked for comment about what parents and other stakeholders are saying, the Rev. John Daniel, vicar general, in a written statement said only: “The Church encourages everyone to treat each other in a Christ-like manner.”

A statement on the website for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says the church is “studying the announcement” made by the Boy Scouts of America, and in the meantime has “assured its religious chartering organizations that, as in the past, they will be able to organize their troops in a way fully consistent with their religious beliefs.”

Shelby said that in cases where a church or religious organization is the sponsor of a troop, and a child’s gender identification is at odds with the church’s religious beliefs, deference will be shown to those religious convictions “and we will find a troop for that boy, which is more in line with a sponsoring organization’s values.”

Churches that sponsor Boy Scout troops are partners, he said.

“They franchise that unit and own it. We agree to provide training opportunities for adult volunteers, summer camp facilities, health and accident insurance, liability insurance for the volunteers; they agree to follow policies and procedures of the Boy Scouts of America.”

In responding to a Journal email query, Effie Delimarkos, director of communications for the Boy Scouts of America, said the policy change was necessary because “communities and state laws are interpreting gender identity differently, and these laws vary widely from state to state.”