Free Republic

The Boy Scouts organization has adopted a transgender policy change which suddenly ends its 106-year role as a single-sex character-development group for young boys. The group discarded the unifying entry requirements of boyhood and male biology, and is now accepting females who wish to live as “transgender boys,” after just a few weeks of internal discussion.

The Boy Scouts of America announced Monday that it will allow transgender children to enroll in scouting programs. Boy Scouts chief executive Michael Surbaugh said in a video message that the organization will now accept boys based on the gender a parent puts on a child’s scouting application, ending a policy of accepting boys based on the gender listed on a child’s birth certificate. “We realized that referring to birth certificates as the reference point is no longer sufficient,” Surbaugh said in a video message. “Communities and state laws are now interpreting gender identity differently than society did in the...

The Boy Scouts of America says it will allow transgender children who identify as boys to enroll in its boys only programs. The organization announced Monday that it had made the decision to base enrollment in boys only programs on the gender a child or parent lists on the application to become a scout. The organization had previously held a policy that relied on the gender listed on a child's birth certificate. A spokeswoman for the organization says it made the decision based on states and communities changing how gender is defined. A transgender child in Secaucus, New Jersey, was...

The Boy Scouts of America said on Monday the group would begin accepting transgender boys, bucking its more than a century-old practice of using the gender stated on a birth certificate to determine eligibility. "Starting today, we will accept and register youth in the Cub and Boy Scout programs based on the gender identity indicated on the application," Boy Scouts of America communications director Effie Delimarkos said in an emailed statement. Delimarkos' cited shifting definitions of gender under state laws, which can "vary widely from state to state," in explaining the change.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Iranian diplomat is in Nigerian police custody on suspicion of spying on the Israeli embassy and other sensitive compounds in the capital Abuja, Israeli security sources said Monday. They said the Iranian was arrested on Jan. 23 when staff reported him "staking out" the embassy. Although he carried no credentials, police discovered he was a diplomat, they said. "A digital camera was found in his possession, with surveillance pictures of the embassy and several other international and local official buildings in the capital," a senior Israeli security source said. A Nigerian police spokesman said last Thursday...

It will be some time before Donald Trump announces a nominee to fill the vacancy left by Antonin Scalia, according to transition insiders. But two names continue to emerge to the top of the president elect's list of potential Supreme Court justices. Judges Diane Sykes and William Pryor are among the top contenders, according to multiple sources familiar with the process. CNN's Donald Trump Supreme Court nominee shortlist The Supreme Court vacancy is "actively being discussed," but there is no timetable at the moment, Trump transition aide Jason Miller told reporters Thursday. "The President-elect, he had previously put out a...

The world's largest scouting organization said Monday that an eastern Jerusalem troop which held a training course honoring Baha Alyan, the terrorist who murdered 3 Israelis last October on a Jerusalem bus, was not affiliated with the movement. The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) said it had carried out an investigation and that the troop in question was not a member. "We are able to confirm that the group concerned is not a member of the Palestinian Scout Association or recognized by WOSM," a statement to AFP said. "We are extremely disappointed that the good name of both...

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (CBS4) – A Denver mother wants to set the record straight after her son attended a recent Boy Scout camp that she did not know was sponsored by Hooters. “We just felt it was a little strange that they didn’t tell us,” Michelle Kettleborough, mother of a Denver Cub Scout, told CBS4’s Kelly Werthmann. “We haven’t been ‘outraged.'” When Kettleborough picked up her 7-year-old son from a Cub Scout day camp in Wheat Ridge, Hooters girls were the last thing she expected to see. “It’s created kind of a difficult conversation where there probably didn’t even need...

ALTUS, Okla. – A man who is a district chairman of a Boy Scouts troop in Oklahoma was arrested this week after he was allegedly caught with child pornography. Steven Foreman, 52, was arrested in Altus after investigators intercepted child pornography coming from a personal computer at Foreman’s home, officials say. Authorities reportedly found several images of child pornography on Foreman’s computers and hard drives. According to KSWO, Foreman is a retired United States Air Force member and is currently employed in a civilian position at the 97th Security Forces Squadron at Altus Air Force Base. He also holds the...

Boy Scouts participation off limits to judges, says California Supreme Court By Kellan Howell - The Washington Times - Saturday, January 24, 2015 The Supreme Court of California announced Friday that California judges will no longer be permitted to participate in nonprofit youth groups like the Boy Scouts of America due to the groups position on gay rights issues. But justices have lifted a ban on judges belonging to a military organization now that LGBT people can serve openly in the U.S. Armed Services, The Bay Area Reporter reported Thursday. The court found fault with the scouting group, which does...

ALTUS, Okla. – A man who is a district chairman of a Boy Scouts troop in Oklahoma was arrested this week after he was allegedly caught with child pornography. Steven Foreman, 52, was arrested in Altus after investigators intercepted child pornography coming from a personal computer at Foreman’s home, officials say. Authorities reportedly found several images of child pornography on Foreman’s computers and hard drives. According to KSWO, Foreman is a retired United States Air Force member and is currently employed in a civilian position at the 97th Security Forces Squadron at Altus Air Force Base. He also holds the...

Robert Gates became the Boy Scouts of America’s president facing deep divisions within the organization’s membership over whether to let gays serve openly in its ranks. On Thursday, Gates finished his two-year term by arguing the Scouts had overcome that challenge and were ready to reverse years of membership declines. In a speech to Scouting leaders, the former U.S. secretary of defense defended the compromise last year to allow openly gay adult leaders to serve in the Scouts, but give churches sponsoring troops the right to use sexual orientation as a guideline for selecting leaders. …

An Assistant Boy Scout Leader in Charleston, WV was arrested for 3 counts of soliciting a minor via computer. The Kanawha County Sheriff's Department received a complaint on May 24th, 2016 from the Buckskin Council for the Boy Scouts about Kevin Michael Rogier. The Sheriff's Department learned upon investigation that Rogier was using social media site to contact three minor to solicit, entice, seduce, lure, try and revive picture and videos of sexually explicit conduct, and send pictures and videos of sexually explicit content. Rogier admitted to the Sheriff's Department that he sent sexual photographs and requested sexual photographs from...

Operatives of a secretive Iran-backed terrorist network in Turkey scouted the area hosting a radar site in Malatya's Kürecik district that is part of a NATO early warning radar system, an ongoing investigation has revealed. According to an 854-page police investigation on the Tawhid-Salam terror network obtained by Today's Zaman, witness testimony provided to the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office on March 22, 2013 indicated that suspects tied to Iranian intelligence had collected information about Kürecik. The witness said many front companies with the cover of legitimate businesses such as real estate agencies or bookstores had been established in Malatya by...

A Boy Scout leader from Boonton suffered bites and scratches after being attacked by a bear while hiking at Splitrock Reservoir Sunday afternoon with three young scouts, authorities said. Christopher Petronino, 50, managed to fend off the black bear using a rock hammer after the animal pulled him into a small cave. Petronino and the scouts were later able to draw the bear out of the cave with food, Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Bob Considine said in a statement. The group had set out to hike on the trails that cover the 625-acre wilderness, and they came along the...

A Boy Scout troop leader was mauled by a bear after he and three Scouts stumbled upon the animal in northern New Jersey on Sunday, the Rockaway Township Police Department said. The three Scouts accompanying him were unharmed, officials said. The Boy Scout leader, Christopher Petronino, took the three Scouts to a cave at Split Rock Reservoir in Morris County, which is about 25 miles west of New York City. The 50-year-old had known about the cave since the 1980s but had never witnessed a bear using it before, according to CNN affiliate WCBS. When Petronino entered the cave Sunday...

A Middle Eastern woman was caught surveilling a U.S. port of entry on the Mexican border holding a sketchbook with Arabic writing and drawings of the facility and its security system, federal law enforcement sources tell Judicial Watch. The woman has been identified as 23-year-old Leila Abdelrazaq, according to a Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) report obtained by JW this week. Abdelrazaq appeared to have two accomplices, a 31-year-old man named Gabriel Schivone and a 28-year-old woman named Leslie Mcafee. CBP agents noticed the trio "observing the facilities" at the Port of Mariposa in Nogales, Arizona on December 2. Schivone...

PARIS (AP) — Authorities in the south of France have arrested a Tunisian who is allegedly part of a group with links to the al-Qaida terrorist network, officials said Monday. The suspect, who was not identified, was arrested on Oct. 14 in Marseille — four days after Italian police arrested four alleged accomplices, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. A fifth man was arrested on Oct. 11 on the Mediterranean island of Malta. The group was based in Italy and provided logistical help to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, ministry officials said. The suspect arrested in France also allegedly...

A 13-year-old put his Boy Scout training to the test and helped rescue his father after he was hit by a refrigerator-sized boulder during a backpacking trip in Idaho last Monday. A week into what was supposed to be a 12-day trip at Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, a large boulder fell on David Finlayson, 52, knocking him down 20 or 30 feet, NBC affiliate KTVB reported. The elder Finlayson broke his left arm and leg. He also started to lose blood because of gash in his shin. “At first I was freaking out a little bit, but after...

SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued the following statement Wednesday from the Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles regarding the Church’s relationship with the Boy Scouts of America: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appreciates the positive contributions Scouting has made over the years to thousands of its young men and boys and to thousands of other youth. As leaders of the Church, we want the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to succeed in its historic mission to instill leadership skills and high moral standards in...