Revisiting the conversation around coed Scouting
An essay sparks new conversation about gender policies in the BSA.
From what I can tell, people are very interested in the policies defining coed participation in Scouting.
This is something I’ve been reporting on for a while, but it came to my attention again this week when I read an article by Aren Cambre, titled “The case for equity and inclusion: Ending BSA’s specious coed ban.”
Cambre holds nothing back in his searing, 31-page argument against the gender separations that currently exist in Scouts BSA units and programs. In what reads like an academic research paper—complete with extensive citations—Cambre outlines what he sees as the many problems caused by the “coed ban,” and debunks the “faulty” justifications for its existence.
“The coed ban is specious: it rests on misinformation and on sexist, racist, and harmful folklore. Its pile-on effects reduce youth safety, harm members, and harm the program,” Cambre writes.
He closes by offering solutions, chief among them allowing chartered organizations to make their own decisions about single-gender or coed units.
The document—which has been making its rounds on Facebook—is long, but worth a read. It highlights many of the frustrations that scouters in the field have experienced navigating the gender-separated, linked-troop model.
If you’re so inclined, you might also want to revisit some of my previous reporting that touches on this issue:
In November, I challenged the BSA’s use of neuroscience to justify gender-separated troops.
In October, I spoke with the leader of the Scouts BSA task force for diversity, equity and inclusion. Our conversation covered some of the concerns around coed participation.
In September, I talked to Alex Mastromarchi, who runs an LGBTQ 101 course for scouters. He told me that questions around nonbinary participation, in a binary troop model, come up frequently.
This summer, I wrote a deep analysis of the shortcomings of the BSA’s trans inclusion policies, not least of which is the gender-separation in Scouts BSA.
And in the early days of this newsletter, I profiled one trans scout in Texas who struggled mightily to find a troop that made sense for him.
This conversation likely isn’t going away anytime soon, and I’m interested to learn more about how scouters feel, and what changes they’d like to see.
If you’ve got an opinion, suggestion or observation on this issue, jump into the conversation. Leave a comment below, and let’s talk about it.
Thank you for sharing this doc. The one thing that's missing is that it's hard to start a new troop from nothing and to sustain it. My daughter is in a troop and I'm in awe of all that the founding leaders are doing to get an independent girls troop running in parallel to a more established boys troop. When we were trying to select a troop, I spoke to leaders of several new girls troops who were hoping my daughter would join to get their troop slightly closer to having a critical number of scouts to do more interesting things. Only so many people can put in this type of effort and this several limits the paths through which girls can participate in BSA.
That said, having seen a few joint events, making an established boys troops coed would take thought, leadership, and guidelines. They had so many informal traditions and habits that would create potential problems if a few girls were added to a larger boys troop. As Jon Martin notes in another comment, this is the biggest danger of troops just becoming unofficially coed without policies or guidance.
My daughter's troop is now doing well and it would lose some of its strengths if it suddenly merged into a larger boys troop - A group of kids (irregardless of gender) who decide to come together to create something new is special and creates unique bonds. Still, I have trouble seeing how the current model is long-term sustainable.
Looking forward to digging into this 31 page paper more in depth. We need Coed officially rolled out, many Packs and Troops are already doing it "under the table" and it is unsafe to start disregarding rules as a unit. As a past professional, the issues that would come across my desk and were always reported were youth on youth incidents. Normally bullying and normally where there was a large age difference. I am not an expert, but by what I saw, BSA needs to address the huge span of ages in the Scouts BSA program. It is too wide of an age gap and should be separated between middle and high schoolers. You may say it is a nonissue because patrols, buddies, tent mates should be within a couple years of each other in age. You are correct in theory, but many troops do not follow these rules or do not have the size to create strong separations internally. Also, YP inspections need to take place. Packs and Troops contently break YPT rules. For example, letting parents serve as contact volunteers without a background check. I don't care if Parent A is a great volunteer and has volunteered for years, we need him trained and background checked and this needs to be actually enforced on Packs and Troops with consequences for noncompliance.