The Boy Scouts of America voted to allow gay Scout members into its troops. According to My FOX Dallas-Fort Worth, the vote of approval passed 61% to 39%.
According to a statement released by the Scouts, the vote included 1,400 voting members of the Boy Scouts of America's National Council:
"The resolution also reinforces that Scouting is a youth program, and any sexual conduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting."
The New York Times reports that the Scouts did not put to the vote whether to allow gay Scout leaders, continuing the ban on the practice. The paper added that the more conservative members of the organization are outraged.
"I think there will be a loss of hundreds of thousands of boys and parents," a rep for the Family Research Council, a Christian group, told the Times.
The change takes effect January 1, 2014 and applies to the organization's 116,000 scouting units.
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