The Scouting America diversity rollback has reached the organization’s National Jamboree, eliminating dedicated spaces for LGBTQ+ youth, women and Scouts of color. The changes follow pressure from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon over the organization’s diversity policies and programs.

About 15,000 scouts, adult leaders and volunteers attended the 10-day National Jamboree at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia. Some scouts and volunteers decided not to attend after learning that the inclusion spaces had been eliminated, while others went hoping to support young people affected by the changes.

The Pentagon describes the changes as a return to traditional scouting values. Critics argue that the federal government used access to military facilities and logistical support to influence the policies of a private organization serving children.

Dedicated Community Spaces Disappear

Recent national scouting events included designated community areas for LGBTQ+ and allied scouts, girls and women, scouts of color and people with disabilities. Those spaces gave participants opportunities to meet others with similar experiences, find mentors and discuss challenges within the organization.

Scouting America did not provide the Associated Press with a detailed explanation for eliminating the spaces. A spokesperson said the organization remained “fully committed to welcoming and serving all youth,” but did not answer specific questions about how the Pentagon agreement affected the Jamboree.

Assistant scoutmaster Samuel Aronson, who helped organize inclusion programs at previous events, said removing the spaces denied some young people the safety and enjoyment Scouting promises. Eagle Scout John Andrew Segebarth also withdrew from the event after the LGBTQ+ and Allied Scouts area he planned to staff was canceled.

Other volunteers chose to attend despite the changes. Layla Grace, a transgender assistant scoutmaster who once found community through an LGBTQ+ scouting tent, volunteered in an area focused on mental health, food security and education while visibly displaying support for LGBTQ+ scouts.

Hegseth Threatened to End Pentagon Support

The current dispute began after Hegseth considered ending the military’s century-old relationship with Scouting America. It unfolded alongside other Pentagon policy changes under Hegseth, including testosterone testing for service members.

In February, Hegseth announced that the Pentagon would conditionally continue that support after Scouting America signed a memorandum of understanding. He said the organization had agreed to remove diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and comply with President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14173, targeting what the administration describes as illegal identity-based preferences.

Hegseth linked the possible loss of military support to changes the organization made over the previous decade. He criticized Scouting America for welcoming girls, accepting transgender participants, changing its name and broadening its approach to religion.

The organization announced in 2024 that it would change its name from the Boy Scouts of America to Scouting America, with the change taking effect in February 2025. Scouting leaders said the new name reflected a commitment to ensuring that every eligible young person felt welcome in its programs.

Pentagon Agreement Reached Into Scout Programs

The February agreement did more than address military support for the National Jamboree.

According to the Pentagon’s account of the agreement, Scouting America agreed to review its publications and programs for language the administration considers political, divisive or discriminatory. Hegseth summarized that requirement by declaring, “No more DEI. Zero.”

Scouting America also discontinued the Citizenship in Society merit badge, which included lessons about diversity, ethical leadership and how personal experiences shape people’s perspectives. The badge had been required for scouts seeking the Eagle Scout rank.

The organization agreed to continue listing only male and female on membership applications. It also committed to preventing people of different biological sexes from sharing tents, showers, toilets and other intimate spaces.

In exchange, the Pentagon agreed to continue allowing scouting programs on military installations and to provide authorized logistical assistance. Scouting America also agreed to waive national registration fees for children of active-duty, National Guard and reserve families and to develop a military service merit badge with the Pentagon.

Both Sides Gave Different Accounts

The agreement created immediate confusion over whether Scouting America had also agreed to exclude transgender members.

Hegseth said the organization would require participation based on biological sex at birth rather than gender identity. Scouting America President and CEO Roger Krone contradicted that interpretation, telling the Associated Press that transgender people remained welcome and would continue participating in its programs.

The conflicting accounts prompted James Dale to sue the Department of Defense under the Freedom of Information Act. Dale was expelled from the Boy Scouts in 1990 after the organization learned that he was gay, leading to a Supreme Court case that upheld the organization’s right to set its own membership standards.

Dale sought the agreement because the Pentagon missed deadlines associated with his records request and did not initially identify a legal exemption permitting it to withhold the document. He argued that either the Pentagon had misrepresented the deal or the federal government had used contractual pressure to influence who a private organization could accept.

The six-page memorandum was released after the lawsuit. It requires officials from the Pentagon and Scouting America to maintain regular communications and meet when necessary while the government monitors the organization’s progress.

The Military’s Leverage Has Legal Limits

Federal law expressly authorizes the Defense Department to provide equipment, transportation and other assistance for national and world Scout jamborees.

The law also states that the defense secretary must provide at least the same level of support offered to the preceding Jamboree. The secretary may waive that requirement only after determining that the support would harm national security and submitting the determination to Congress before the waiver takes effect.

That provision complicates Hegseth’s threat to end Jamboree assistance. It does not necessarily prevent the Pentagon from restricting separate benefits, including access to military installations, support for local troops and other forms of cooperation outside the national event.

The February agreement tied those broader benefits to Scouting America’s progress on the requested changes. Hegseth said the Pentagon would review compliance after six months and could still withdraw support if it considered the organization’s progress insufficient.

Scouting America Faces Competing Pressures

Scouting America is attempting to preserve a military partnership that provides practical support and connects the organization to generations of service members. At the same time, it continues to publicly describe itself as an organization that welcomes young people from different backgrounds.

Those commitments are becoming harder to reconcile.

The Pentagon says its conditions protect fairness, biological distinctions and Scouting’s original mission. Supporters of the agreement also argue that a youth organization receiving federal assistance should comply with the administration’s interpretation of civil rights law.

Opponents see the same agreement as political coercion. They argue that the Pentagon threatened resources and access until Scouting America removed programs designed to help minority participants feel less isolated.

The disappearance of the community spaces provides the clearest evidence that the pressure has already changed the experience available to scouts. The organization may continue accepting girls, LGBTQ+ participants and scouts of color, but it no longer offers the same dedicated programs that publicly recognized their presence.

The Jamboree Shows What Compliance Looks Like

Scouting America has not announced that the eliminated spaces will remain absent from all future national events. It has also not explained whether the change resulted from a permanent policy, an event-level decision or an effort to demonstrate progress before the Pentagon’s late-August review.

That uncertainty leaves families, volunteers and local councils waiting to learn how far the changes will extend.

For Hegseth, the removal of diversity programs may show that the Pentagon’s pressure is working. For affected scouts, it shows that federal support came with conditions that altered the spaces available to them at the organization’s largest gathering.

The central question is no longer whether Scouting America changed under government pressure. The National Jamboree confirms that it did.

The remaining question is how much more the organization will change to keep the Pentagon as its partner.