How the Boy Scouts Destroyed Itself

The Boy Scouts of America announced Tuesday that it will be rolling out a new name: Scouting America. The change was made in the name of making girls feel included. “This will be a simple but very important evolution as we seek to ensure that everyone feels welcome in Scouting,” said the organization’s CEO in announcing the change. “We are an organization for all. It’s time our name reflects that,” he said.

Back in 2019, the Boy Scouts announced that it would accept girls into its programs and would change the name of its flagship program to Scouts BSA to reflect that change. Ever since, the organization has been in total freefall.

In 2018, the last year that only boys were allowed in Boy Scouts, the organization counted over 2 million boys among its members. Immediately upon the rollout of the co-ed policy, membership plunged, falling to 1,123,651 in 2020. The organization claimed that the pandemic was primarily responsible and that membership would quickly recover. That was not to be. The organization counted 1,042,000 members at the end of 2022 and now says membership hovers just over 1 million.