Scouting America cancels LGBTQ+ inclusion space planned for summer Jamboree
As part of Scouting America’s very public battle with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the organization has quietly scrapped plans for LGBTQ+ and other community spaces at this summer’s National Jamboree.
Catherine Peluso, who until recently was the Jamboree Belonging Lead, told me that the Jamboree Community Spaces have been cancelled. "It was not my decision (or the Jamboree leadership’s decision) to cancel, it came from the national office," Peluso said.
When asked to confirm, Scouting’s national PR office told me, "Scouting continuously makes programmatic updates in our advancement, structure, activities and events. Importantly and unchanged, every family is welcome in Scouting."
The cancellation of the affinity spaces—which has not yet been reported publicly—is a stark departure from the last Jamboree, held in 2023, which featured the event's first-ever affinity spaces for LGBTQ+ youth, scouts of color and newly-admitted girls.
“This is my entire world,” one young scouter gushed about the LGBTQ+ space when I visited the 2023 Jamboree. But now, seemingly bowing to pressure to drop DEI work in order to maintain military support, the organization has opted to cancel the inclusionary programming at its flagship event, which attracts some 15,000 scouts and volunteers.
While Scouting America held ground in other ways—refusing to kick out girls or revert its name to “Boy Scouts of America,” as Hegseth requested—this is a sign that it is nonetheless backpedaling on some matters. Notably, the cancellation of the Jamboree Community Spaces was not included in Scouting’s own rundown of changes that came out of the Hegseth deal.
Peluso says that the approximately 35 volunteer staff for the community spaces were offered the opportunity to either receive a full refund or transfer to another Jamboree team of their choosing.
