The Boy Scouts of America, with its traditions of youth in uniform and the character-building virtues of honor, has always looked back to an older, more structured image of America, when gay and lesbian people were invisible and silent. It was a view reaffirmed in Scout policy as recently as seven months ago. Openly gay scouts and scout leaders need not apply.

The announcement on Monday by Scouts officials that the ban on gays was in line for elimination was thus a thunderclap on two fronts, scouts and people close to the organization said. First, it removed from discussion the idea, voiced in July by senior national scout leaders, that the ban was in the best interests of scouts themselves.

Perhaps even more momentous was the acknowledgment that scouting itself had moved on, with a diversity of thought like the multicultural and sexually diverse buzz of modern America itself, that no longer could be confined or defined by a dictated policy from headquarters. Local chapters would be able to decide whether to admit gay scouts.

“The Boy Scouts would not, under any circumstances, dictate a position to units, members, or parents,” said a spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America, Deron Smith, in a statement. “This would mean there would no longer be any national policy regarding sexual orientation, and the chartered organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting would accept membership and select leaders consistent with each organization’s mission, principles, or religious beliefs.”