This just in: The Boy Scouts of America are undergoing a much-needed rebrand.

Following years of turmoil due to declining membership and widespread allegations of abuse and misconduct, the once iconic organization is changing its name.

Beginning next February, the youth group will simply be called “Scouting America,” emphasizing its new commitment to inclusion. The name change coincides with the organization’s 115-year anniversary.

“While this may be a surprise to some of you, for us this is a straightforward evolution and the next natural step in ensuring all American youth feel welcomed and recognized in an organization that is meant to serve all Americans,” Roger A. Krone, president of the Boy Scouts of America, told reporters.

The shift has been a long time coming.

The BSA didn’t lift its ban on gay and bi youth members until 2014, and gay and bi adult leaders until 2015. The discriminatory ban was enacted in 1978, and infamously put into action when an assistant scoutmaster was removed when the BSA found out he was gay. The man, James Dale, took his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court (the court ruled against him 5-4).

BSA membership peaked at 5 million in 1972; and for decades, the group’s policies were stuck in time. Girls were prohibited from joining until 2017, along with transgender boys.

But now, there are more than 176,000 young girls and women in the Scouts. Krone says the branding shift better represents the composition of the organization today “Part of my job is to reduce all the barriers I possibly can for people to accept us as an organization and to join,” he said, per CNN.

That doesn’t mean everyone is happy, however. The vehemently anti-LGBTQ+ troll account “Libs of TikTok” posted about the name change Tuesday, eliciting outraged responses from far-right GOP lawmakers.

Ted Cruz weighed in, blaming the BSA’s diminished standing on its pivot towards inclusion. “With membership at historic lows, Boy Scouts of America decides to rebrand to make clear that ‘boys’ are no longer welcome,” he posted, missing the point entirely.

“I’m sure that will help with recruiting,” he added.

Though Cruz is being sarcastic, the attention-seeking Texas senator is correct: the name “Scouting America” should help with recruiting. The Boy Scouts of America name is tarnished, thanks to decades of alleged sexual abuse.

Four years ago, BSA filed up for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid thousands of child sex abuse claims—many of which had been previously swept under the rug by officials (much like the Catholic Church).

A documentary released in November 2022, Boy Scout’s Honor, chronicles the harrowing tale of a former Scout, Aaron Averhart, who was groomed by his Scout leader. Averhart’s recollections dovetail with the doc’s broader revelations that, beginning in the 1920s, the BSA stored secret files on pedophiles in their ranks. The files were locked away, and the pedophiles weren’t removed.

Averhart’s research leads him to several other victims, who live in a town 1,500 miles away.

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It is quite ironic that Cruz and other conservative politicians who fear-monger about LGBTQ+ people “grooming” kids are defending the old name of an organization that endorsed the sordid practice. To express his opposition to the change, Missouri rep. Andrew Clyde declared “wokeness destroys everything it touches.”

He’s apparently unaware of, or doesn’t care about, all of the boys who were destroyed under the BSA moniker.

The BSA has spent more than $150 million settling lawsuits over sexual abuse, and set up a court-ordered Victims Compensation Trust that will pay out $2.4 billion to 82,000 abuse survivors.

For comparison’s sake, the Catholic Church has paid out more than $3 billion to abuse survivors. The two tarnished organizations are peers in that dark respect.

With more than 1 million youth still enrolled, the BSA remains an important organization. It can play an especially significant role for LGBTQ+ youth, too, who deal with loneliness and depressive symptoms at higher rates than their heterosexual peers.

May those kids finally feel comfortable joining the BSA, under an entirely new name.

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