Scouts on the outs

National | Under attack in several courtrooms, the BSA is in a struggle to preserve its very identity | Roy Maynard

These are complicated days for the Boy Scouts of America. Last week, a New Jersey appeals court ruled that the BSA discriminated against a homosexual scoutmaster when it ousted him. And later this month, the California Supreme Court is scheduled to rule on whether the Boy Scouts can keep out of their ranks homosexuals, atheists, and even girls. What's worse, scout leaders are lamenting, those seem to be the only ones who are vocal about wanting to join.

"I remember in my fourth-grade elementary class, if you weren't in Scouting, you weren't anything," scout leader Jerry Asmus recounted at last summer's Jamboree. Now, Mr. Asmus explained, "These kids don't talk about it. You go to school and you don't talk about it."