U.S. ready to cut support to Scouts, accusing them of attacking 'boy-friendly spaces'

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: NPR

Exclusive Investigations

U.S. ready to cut support to Scouts, accusing them of attacking 'boy-friendly spaces'

November 25, 2025 5:00 AM ET
By Graham Smith, Tom Bowman


FILE - Merit badges and a rainbow-colored neckerchief slider are affixed on a Boy Scout uniform. The U.S. organization, which now welcomes girls into the program and allows them to work toward the coveted Eagle Scout rank, announced May 7, 2024, that it would change its name to Scouting America as it focuses on inclusion.
Ted S. Warren/AP

The century-old partnership between the U.S. military and Scouting could be coming to an end.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is planning for the military to sever all ties with Scouting America, saying the group once known as the Boy Scouts is no longer a meritocracy and has become an organization designed to "attack boy-friendly spaces," according to documents reviewed by NPR.

In a draft memo to Congress, which sources shared with NPR but which has not yet been sent, Hegseth criticizes Scouting for being "genderless" and for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

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Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/11/25/nx-s1-5615164/pentagon-scouting-hegseth-cut-ties

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Hat tip, commenter Ed B at Joe.My.God.

https://www.joemygod.com/2025/11/chatter-away-overnight-open-thread-2792/#comment-6801192096

CHATTER AWAY: Overnight Open Thread
November 24, 2025

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Where's the "Males Only" sign on the Pentagon?

Next to the "Girls Have Cooties" one?

[ananda]

18. I know. This admin is so immature and incompetent.

We all know girls are better anyway, lol.

[DBoon]

24. It will be there

Once Kegbreath recovers from his hangover

[bucolic_frolic]

2. It is so creepy how they're chopping up every aspect of life to suit their mental distortions

[J_William_Ryan]

3. Conservatives

obsessive over the stupidest things.

They make issues out of moronic non-issues.

[eringer]

4. This will never happen

Scouting provides disciplined recruits to the military. There are Eagle Scouts throughout the military hierarchy.

[Javaman]

6. they will just create a new scouting organization. with part of its main uniform: a brown shirt. nt

[Walleye]

5. Fact is they hate girls? It's obvious.

Meritocracy that’s a laugh. Where is there a meritocracy?

[OldBaldy1701E]

8. That is a load.

They do not care about meritocracy, they care about patriarchy.

And, only patriarchy.

[Walleye]

9. Exactly, patriarchy that's the word I was looking for. It caused the Roman Empire to crash.

[Hey Joe]

17. Whiskey Pete is about as insecure in his

manhood as a young boy could be.
The childish invective, hatefulness, misogyny ,performative cruelty and extreme ego inflation he demonstrates, fails to obscure his rank incompetence and lack of leadership ,experience or any good will .
He needs to sober up but he won’t.
His future will be bleak.

[Walleye]

22. Failure. Secretary of defense should be largely a diplomatic position.

He is the farthest thing from a diplomat that you can get

[buzzycrumbhunger]

7. I call bullshit

My son decided he wanted to join Cub Scouts and before long, our whole family was sucked in. If they can get you on board as a committee member, they've got you. I quickly went from that to assistant scoutmaster to freakin' unit commission er (i.e. working on a district basis, including teaching skills to other adults).

Especially in Cub Scouts, they have to gear it toward families to retain members. Families were even encouraged to bring their RV to camp, if that made mums happy. Girls were inevitably included in everything.

If anything, women outnumbered men in leadership roles, and girls have had the opportunity to join as Explorers for AGES.

It only makes sense to let them participate completely--especially as Girl Scouts have really suffered since I was one.

Disgusting to see people fighting so hard to indoctrinate boys into the fear and hatred of women because they're so fucking insecure about their penis size. 🤨

[Walleye]

10. They are grooming boys to hate girls. They will grow into men that hate women.

[llmart]

12. I was married to an Eagle Scout.

I thought that would be a plus. Boy, was I wrong. And yes, he both hated and feared women, especially strong, intelligent, self-confident ones. He also hated his mother with a white hot passion (his words). A narcissist to the very end.

[orangecrush]

14. Michael Moore was an Eagle Scout

Respectfully, your exes issues sound like they were related to something other than scouting.

[llmart]

16. My response was to the statement Walleye and other posters made...

about how it's one more way to embolden the patriarchy and continue the white male privilege that has been prevalent in our society.

Not sure what Michael Moore has to do with this, but he seems to have a host of his own issues. Maybe he isn't the best example of an Eagle Scout either.

[OldBaldy1701E]

11. My Scout leaders in both the Cubs and the Webelos were female.

They were 'den mothers'. But they were our Scout Leaders. We never saw this as an issue.

(We won't go into the whole 'scared of any male who says they want to help kids' thing, we just had females as our Scout leaders and we did not care one way or the other. Besides, they had the perfect thing to get us to hurry up in certain situations. If we were at the pool, or somewhere that required us to change clothes, all she had to do was yell into the changing room, "Alright, I am coming in there if you are all not out here in thirty seconds!" You have never seen so many boys rush to get dressed after goofing around for twenty minutes in the changing room.)

[orangecrush]

13. My Scout Master in 1968

Was a WW2 Buffalo Soldier.

The assistant was a young white ex Marine Vietnam veteran.

I know what real leadership looks like.

Trump and company are the antithesis of leadership.

[Paladin]

15. Grudging thanks to Hegseth, for yet another dumb fucking move.

One more big segment of voters, publicly insulted and alienated by this regime. They're handing the country back to us, if we just seize the initiative and make the most of it...

[travelingthrulife]

19. Whiskey Pete has some serious issues, doesn't he?

[Botany]

20. Way to go Hog's Breath

Keep digging your own grave. Looking forward to see you extradited to Venezuela to
stand trial for murder. The Scouts are just doing what is right. BTW I still use what I
learned in Scouts such as don’t complain about the weather because it is the same as
it for you as is for the next person and how to build a fire.🔥

[NBachers]

23. A good Scout leaves the campsite cleaner than it was when they got there.

[Botany]

27. A good scout leaves some firewood and kindling ready for the next people to use the camp site ..

… or in the cabins I stay in Western MD you leave a fire that is built in the wood stove so all the
next person has to do is light it.

[travelingthrulife]

21. He should be praising them for overcoming their leaderships' bad behavior in the past.

I applaud them for including girls. Maybe they will just roll all of it together into one scouting group.

Whiskey Pete, of course, wants to have Hitler Youth all over again.

[maxsolomon]

25. I never even knew the Military had a "partnership" with Scouting.

Oh well.

[usonian]

28. Pete meant SCOTUS

He bought a merit badge in guzzling bubbly



But many's the woman who can drink that beta male under the table.



Appropriately named for Pete.

CABRON!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

26. My oldest child is an Eagle Scout and went to the National Jamboree

This is a stupid move by Hegseth

[DrFunkenstein]

29. Can Hegseth Just Come Out of The Closet Already?

Why does the nation have to suffer just because this guy can't get a therapist to deal with his deep-seated issues about his masculinity and sexuality? If he would just embrace his shadow self and finally allow himself to stay at the proverbial YMCA, he wouldn't have to bend over backwards trying to act so butch and force the rest of us to deal with his psychological baggage.