The splinter group, OnMyHonor.Net, said the new organization will offer an outdoors-oriented character-development program for boys similar to that of the Boy Scouts, while also focusing on “sexual purity” and adhering to “a standard statement of Christian values”. The new organization, which has yet to be named, stopped short of banning gay children but said it would bar any members who “openly flaunt sexuality”.

“We have heard directly from over 30,000 people that recommended a need for this organization,” said Rob Green, a former top Boy Scouts leader in South Carolina and now interim executive director of OnMyHonor.Net’s new program. “There is an organization existing now that is in line with your values.”

OnMyHonor.Net is a group of parents, scoutmasters, Eagle Scouts and other scouting leaders formerly associated with the Boy Scouts. Last spring, OnMyHonor.Net lobbied the Boy Scouts to maintain their policy barring gay youths and adults from the organization. In May, the Scouts voted to lift the ban on gay youths, angering many conservative members. The Scouts retained a prohibition on gay Scoutmasters and other adults.