Scouting America agrees to 5 changes under Pentagon pressure

The group is under pressure from the U.S. Department of War, which has threatened to yank its support.

In a video message issued Friday, Hegseth said he had been "very seriously considering ending our support of scouting altogether," accusing the group of adopting "radical, woke ideology." 

But he said the organization has agreed to implement changes, mentioning five, while indicating there were more.

He said that a DEI-related merit badge has been discontinued.

"Third, Scouting America will modify its policy to make clear that membership will be based solely on biological sex at birth and not gender identity," he said. 

"That means that the application, any application, will have only two sex designations, male and female, and the application must match the applicant's birth certificate. Scouting will also make clear that biological boys and girls will not be allowed to occupy or share intimate spaces together. Toilets, showers, tents, anywhere like that.

"Over several months, we engaged in dialogue with Department leadership to align on how we could deepen our service to military families, while making programmatic updates to comply with Executive Order 14173.

"Today we are moving forward with implementing new programmatic elements that deliver on that mission: waiving registration fees for military families, launching a new merit badge focused on military service and veterans, and reinforcing our commitment to Scouting's foundational ideas: leadership, character, duty to God, duty to country and service," the release noted.

Hegseth said in his video message Friday the department will evaluate the group's progress in six months.

He said the Department of War's "support for Scouting America is contingent on them making substantial progress toward reaching these and many other positive changes in the next six months."

"If we're unsatisfied with Scouting America's progress toward and commitment to the agreed-upon reforms, we will find them in violation of the president's executive order and cease our support," he said. 

"Ideally, I believe the Boy Scouts should go back to being the Boy Scouts, as originally founded, a group that develops boys into men. Maybe someday."