The Pentagon's Price: How Scouting America Traded Inclusivity for Military Backing

On February 27, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stood before cameras and announced that Scouting America — the organization known for over a century as the Boy Scouts of America — had agreed to a package of "key reforms" demanded by the Pentagon. The Citizenship in Society merit badge, which required Scouts to engage with concepts of diversity and inclusion, was discontinued [1]. A new Military Service merit badge would take its place [2]. The organization's DEI committee was dissolved. Membership applications would list only "male" and "female" as sex designations, matching applicants to their birth certificates [3].

In exchange, Scouting America keeps its access to military bases, logistical support for its National Jamboree, and the Pentagon's institutional endorsement — a relationship that stretches back to 1937 [4].

Hegseth framed the deal in blunt terms: "No more DEI. Zero" [1]. He accused the Scouts of having "lost their way" through name changes and what he called "an insidious, radical, woke ideology" [5]. But to Scouting America's leadership, the agreement was something different: a pragmatic concession to preserve a partnership with the federal government that Congress has codified into law [4].

The question is whether these changes address the forces that have been shrinking Scouting America for fifty years — or whether they are a politically motivated makeover applied to an organization whose problems run far deeper than its merit badge catalog.

A Half-Century of Decline

Source: BSA Annual Reports / Wikipedia

Data as of Dec 1, 2025CSV

Scouting America's membership crisis did not begin with any culture-war controversy. The organization peaked at approximately 6.5 million youth members in 1972 [6]. By 1980, that number had fallen to 4.3 million, driven in large part by a disastrous 1972 programming overhaul called the "Improved Scouting Program" that stripped outdoor skills requirements — including Camping, Cooking, Nature, Swimming, and Lifesaving — from Eagle Scout advancement [6]. The changes were widely regarded as a failure, and membership never recovered to its early-1970s levels.

The decline continued at a slower pace through the 1990s and 2000s, with membership hovering between 4.3 and 4.8 million through the mid-1990s before dropping to roughly 3.2 million by 2005 [6]. Competition from youth sports leagues, busier family schedules, and shifting perceptions of Scouting as old-fashioned all contributed [7].

Then came two body blows in rapid succession. In January 2020, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints completed its withdrawal from BSA, pulling approximately 400,000 youth members — roughly 20 percent of total membership — into the church's own youth program [8]. The LDS Church had been the single largest institutional sponsor of Scout troops. Months later, the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered in-person activities nationwide. Combined, these events drove membership from 1.97 million in 2019 to 1.12 million in 2020, a 43 percent drop in a single year [9]. Court records from the BSA's bankruptcy proceedings showed membership falling further to about 762,000 by 2022 [10].

As of 2025, Scouting America reports approximately 1 million youth participants and over 400,000 adult volunteers, a modest recovery that included a small uptick — about 16,000 new Scouts, less than 2 percent — following the 2024 rebrand from "Boy Scouts of America" to "Scouting America" [11]. More than 196,000 girls now participate, and over 8,000 girls have earned Eagle Scout rank [11].

What the Pentagon Deal Actually Changes

The February 2026 agreement restructures several elements of the Scouting program. The most concrete changes include:

Merit badge swap. The Citizenship in Society merit badge, introduced in 2022 and made mandatory for Eagle Scout advancement, required Scouts to study concepts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. It has been discontinued and replaced with a forthcoming Military Service merit badge developed in cooperation with the Department of Defense. Eagle Scout now requires 13 merit badges instead of 14 [12].

Biological sex policy. Membership applications now offer only "male" and "female" designations, and the selection must match the applicant's birth certificate. Scouts of different sexes assigned at birth cannot share bathrooms, tents, or similar facilities [3]. Hegseth presented this as ending transgender-inclusive policies, but Scouting America CEO Roger Krone told the Associated Press that the practical impact is limited: "We have transgender people in our program, and we'll have transgender people in our program going forward" [5].

DEI committee dissolution. The organization disbanded its diversity, equity, and inclusion committee to comply with a Trump administration executive order targeting DEI programs within entities receiving federal support [1].

Religious language. Scouting America recommitted publicly to "duty to God" and removed references to "humanism and Earth-centered pagan religions" from its materials [1].

Military family benefits. Registration fees will be waived for children of active-duty, Guard, and Reserve service members beginning June 1, 2026 [2].

Pentagon oversight. A uniformed liaison officer will be appointed by the Department of Defense to coordinate the partnership. Hegseth set a six-month review period to assess whether the organization has fully implemented the changes [5].

The Man in the Middle

The figure navigating between the Pentagon and Scouting America's membership is Roger Krone, the organization's 15th Chief Scout Executive and the first CEO hired after BSA emerged from bankruptcy in 2023. Krone's background is notable: he is a pilot and aerospace engineer who spent 45 years in the defense and aerospace industry, holding senior positions at Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, and General Dynamics before serving as CEO of Leidos, one of the largest defense and intelligence contractors in the United States, from 2014 to 2023 [13]. He earned his Eagle Scout award in 1973 — the year of peak membership [13].

Krone has described Scouting America as "a very faith-based, faith-driven organization, very patriotic" [2]. He has also emphasized that approximately 70 percent of the organization's unit charters are held by churches, with the Catholic Church as the single largest charter holder, followed by Methodist, Episcopal, and United Church of Christ congregations [2].

His defense-industry pedigree positions him as a natural interlocutor with Pentagon leadership, but it also raises questions about the degree to which the agreement reflects the interests of Scouting families versus those of the organization's institutional sponsors and government partners.

The Causal Question: Did Inclusivity Kill Membership?

Critics of the inclusivity-era changes — admitting gay youth in 2013, gay adult leaders in 2015, transgender members in 2017, and girls in 2018 — argue that these decisions alienated the conservative and religious families who formed Scouting's base [14]. There is some evidence for this. The LDS Church explicitly cited policy differences over gay and transgender inclusion as factors in its 2020 departure, which removed 400,000 members overnight [8]. Some conservative Scout leaders and church sponsors defected after the 2015 vote on gay adult leaders, with pre-vote BSA estimates suggesting around 300,000 members could leave [15].

But the causal link is difficult to isolate. The LDS departure was announced in 2018 — before girls were formally admitted — and the church's stated rationale also included its desire for a "uniform global youth program" not dependent on a U.S.-based organization [8]. The COVID-19 pandemic, which hit just months after the LDS withdrawal took effect, makes it nearly impossible to disaggregate the membership impact of cultural changes from the impact of a global health crisis that shuttered in-person youth activities of all kinds [9].

The broader trend complicates the narrative further. Membership had been declining steadily since 1972 — long before any inclusivity policies — driven by programming missteps, competition from other youth activities, and demographic shifts [6]. The organization was losing roughly 100,000 members per year through much of the 2010s, a trajectory that predated the transgender and girls' admission decisions [7].

Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, a Republican and retired Air Force brigadier general, criticized the Pentagon's involvement in Scouting policy. "I've heard a lot of dumb stuff, but this is up there," he told NPR [5].

What the Research Says About Military Youth Programs

The Pentagon's push to embed military content into Scouting raises a related question: do military-affiliated youth programs produce better outcomes?

The largest comparable program is JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps), which serves over 500,000 students in more than 3,400 high schools nationwide [16]. A RAND Corporation study found positive associations between JROTC participation and high school graduation rates, attendance, and lower rates of suspension compared to matched peers. JROTC participants were also more likely to enlist, complete their first term of enlistment, and pursue STEM-related military specialties [16].

However, the evidence on civic outcomes is more ambiguous. Research on whether JROTC classroom instruction increases civic knowledge, skills, and attitudes found no measurable effect from the civics curriculum alone [17]. The program's benefits appear to stem primarily from its structure and mentorship rather than from military content per se.

No peer-reviewed research has compared military-themed scouting curricula to traditional outdoor-focused scouting in terms of civic, educational, or career outcomes. The "traditional values" framework is, at present, a political and cultural argument rather than one grounded in programmatic evidence.

How Scouting America Compares Internationally

Scouting America is one of 176 member organizations of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), which collectively serves approximately 51.4 million participants worldwide [18]. WOSM's official policy describes Scouting as "an inclusive Movement that welcomes young people and adult volunteers from all backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, genders, and abilities" [19].

Several peer democracies' scout organizations have moved in the opposite direction from Scouting America's new course. The Scout Association in the United Kingdom has been fully co-educational since 1991 [20]. Scouts Australia and Scouts Canada similarly admit all genders and have adopted inclusive policies on sexual orientation and gender identity [20].

WOSM has not issued a public statement in response to Scouting America's February 2026 policy changes. The organization's rules permit only one member organization per country, which means BSA's international affiliation is not immediately at risk from a rival U.S. scouting group [18]. However, WOSM's stated commitment to gender equality and inclusion creates a potential tension with the biological-sex-only membership designation that Scouting America has now adopted. Whether that tension escalates will depend in part on whether WOSM treats the change as a domestic policy matter or as a deviation from its foundational principles.

Who Is in the Tent — and Who Gets Left Outside

The demographic composition of Scouting America's membership shapes who is most affected by these changes. The organization does not publish detailed demographic breakdowns by race, income, or geography, making independent analysis difficult. What is known: roughly 70 percent of unit charters are held by religious congregations, with the Catholic Church as the largest single sponsor [2]. The organization's presence is strongest in suburban and rural communities, where church-based sponsorship provides the institutional infrastructure for troops and packs.

The fee waiver for military families — estimated at roughly 1.2 million children of active-duty, Guard, and Reserve service members nationwide — could expand access in military communities [1]. But the biological-sex policy and the removal of inclusion-oriented programming send a different signal to LGBTQ families and their allies.

GLAAD, the LGBTQ media advocacy organization, has called on Eagle Scouts to speak out against the changes [21]. Scouting America's own leadership has attempted to thread the needle, with Krone insisting that transgender Scouts remain welcome while simultaneously agreeing to biological-sex-based designations on applications [5].

The tension between these positions may prove unsustainable. Local councils, of which there are approximately 250 across the country (down from roughly 1,400 through historical consolidation), operate with significant autonomy — they recruit volunteers, manage finances, and charter units in their geographic areas [22]. National leadership can set policy, but enforcement depends on local cooperation. In practice, councils in progressive urban areas may interpret the new rules differently than those in conservative rural communities, creating a patchwork of experiences for Scout families.

The Six-Month Clock

The Pentagon's six-month review period, set to conclude in late August 2026, creates a timeline that will determine the next phase of this story. Hegseth has made clear that continued military support is conditional on "making and maintaining the proposed changes" [5]. The stakes include not just symbolic endorsement but logistical support for the National Jamboree, access to military installations where Scout units operate worldwide, and the Eagle Scout advanced enlistment benefit that gives Eagle Scouts a higher starting rank when entering military service [4].

For an organization that has lost 85 percent of its peak membership over five decades, the calculus is straightforward: Scouting America cannot afford to lose its most powerful institutional partner. Whether the policy concessions it has made will stabilize or further fracture its remaining membership base is the open question.

Fifteen percent of military academy cadets are Eagle Scouts [2]. More than 130 million Americans have participated in Scouting since 1910 [2]. These numbers reflect the organization's historic reach — and measure the distance between what Scouting once was and what it is becoming.