As Boy Scouts Go Genderless, Critics Say Boys Still Need a Place to Be Boys, so They Can Become Men

The Boy Scouts organization is implementing some new historic changes, saying girls will soon be able to join Cub Scouts and eventually achieve the highest rank of Eagle Scout.

This new initiative will begin in 2018. Local charters will be able to choose whether to establish single gender or co-ed packs.

Boy Scouts of America said the decision is focused on serving families and giving parents more options. But the Girl Scouts organization criticized the initiative, saying it strains the century-old bond between the two groups.

It's just the latest controversial move by the Boy Scouts which in recent years allowed gay troops and gay leaders.

Critics say it's all happening because of a liberal agenda to redefine sexuality in America.

After the Boy Scouts' latest announcement, conservative radio talk show host Erick Erickson said on his show, "When you cave on sexual ethics, everything else falls away."

"There has been an ongoing war on boys in this country by the Left for a very long time, where they attack institutions that teach boys good character, and then once they have destroyed those institutions, they lament that all the good men are gone," he said.

He says the Left wants to destroy "the patriarchy" because leftists believe boys and girls and gender are "completely interchangeable." He argues their goal is to infiltrate all-male organizations to bring them down.

"There needs to be a place where a boy can go to be a boy and learn how to be a man," Erickson said. He says now that the Boy Scouts are just becoming "the Scouts" that it's a place where "gender means nothing."

A number of different scouting options exist for boys, like the Royal Rangers or Trail Life USA.  

Royal Rangers is a church-based program with scouting type activities paired with biblical teaching.

Trail Life was created in 2013 after the Boy Scout debate on homosexuality. They say their group will provide a more traditional approach to scouting, to focus on "character-forming" rather than political correctness.

Trail Life USA CEO Mark Hancock is pledging that his organization will be "a place where boys can be boys."

"As gender blurring only increases, it is more important than ever that someone provides a safe environment where boys can be boys, and where their natural talents and tendencies can be affirmed, encouraged and developed by men who can offer a positive role model," he stated.

"Increasingly, however, it seems that boys are being singled out and told that their natural traits and characteristics are somehow wrong or need to be corrected," Hancock said. "We believe that, properly encouraged and nurtured by good role models, what makes a boy a boy is good, for the individual and for society."