Pentagon Forces Scouting America to Abandon Woke Ideology — And It’s About Time

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just delivered an ultimatum that saved one of America’s most storied institutions from complete ideological collapse. One day before the Trump administration ended negotiations with Iran, Hegseth wielded Pentagon leverage like a precision weapon against Scouting America, forcing the organization to gut its DEI programming, restore biological sex as the foundation for boy and girl participation, and implement pro-military reforms. The organization surrendered immediately.

This is what winning looks like.

As an Eagle Scout who currently serves as assistant scoutmaster and chaplain for a Virginia troop, I witness weekly the rot that has infected Scouts BSA since my teenage years. I’m also raising a daughter who’s working toward her own Eagle rank. Some will see contradiction there. I see an opportunity to reclaim what matters while cutting out the cancer of wokeness that nearly killed this organization.

The Real Enemy Wasn’t Girls — It Was Cowardice

Let’s address the elephant in the room. I take heat from fellow conservatives for staying involved with Scouts BSA at all, much less for having my daughter in the program. But here’s the truth: “Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.” Those twelve virtues built me as a Scout. When my daughter — a classic tomboy — discovered my BSA uniform in the closet, she wanted in immediately.

That wasn’t possible until 2017 when the organization rebranded as Scouts BSA and created girl-only troops. Enrolling her was an easy decision. I preferred she learn BSA ethics rather than absorb whatever the Girl Scouts were peddling. Raising a strong-willed girl in the 2010s required vigilance from any thinking parent. The gender ideology tsunami that swamped America during the Biden administration was gathering strength in 2018 when we joined a troop with a robust girls-only program — boys stayed separate, doing their own activities in another part of the building.

Fully co-ed troops remain rare. In extensive travels through Scouting, I’ve yet to encounter troops mixing boys and girls for camping and tenting. Critics who imagine coed sleepovers are trafficking in fantasy, not reality.

Their frustration stems from legitimate concern about the war on boyhood ravaging Western civilization. I understand why traditionalists view girls’ presence as invading the last refuge where boys can mature without interference.

But facts matter. Girls didn’t put BSA on life support — the decades-long sexual abuse cover-up did. That scandal shattered trust between Scouting and American families beyond repair. Girls didn’t cause membership to crater from 6.5 million boys in 1972 to barely 1 million in 2024.

BSA cannot force screen-addicted boys to choose weekend campouts over Fortnite. Two generations of digitally-lobotomized young men represent the larger crisis.

The girls I observe in BSA are among the finest scouts I’ve encountered. They’re serious, intelligent, committed to Scouting’s virtues, and quick to master essential skills. This mirrors patterns everywhere from academia to the workplace — girls mature faster and outperform boys consistently.

We must help young men, but we cannot manufacture their desire to be Scouts. BSA reflects boys’ interests; it doesn’t create them.

How Hegseth Wielded the Pentagon’s Power

The Pentagon’s leverage is straightforward: access to military installations and personnel for lock-ins, merit-badge retreats, and jamborees. Hegseth gave Scouting America six months to comply with Executive Order 14173. That means protecting intimate spaces — tenting, showers, overnight accommodations — based on biology, period.

The wildcard was always transgender-identifying scouts. Before Hegseth’s intervention, troop responses remained murky. Now the mandate is crystal clear. All kids can join Scouts BSA, but biology determines placement if the organization wants Pentagon partnership.

This is common sense enforced through strength.

The DEI Merit Badge Was Indoctrination Masquerading as Citizenship

Hegseth also targeted the Citizenship in Society merit badge — the “DEI merit badge” — which didn’t exist during my early 2000s Scouting career. Citizenship badges for World and Nation already promoted patriotic duty and understanding of global institutions and governmental systems.

Rolled out in 2021 during peak cultural insanity following George Floyd’s death, Citizenship in Society became mandatory for Eagle rank. Like DEI itself, the program sounded innocuous until you examined what it actually required.

I endured multiple sessions watching teenagers — 90% white — rank their privilege and catalog discrimination experiences based on identity elements, real or imagined. Conversations among teens sprawled into sexual topics, class warfare, gender theory, racial grievance, and education on fringe religious practices including Wicca.

The merit badge was a victimhood factory operating at full capacity. Adults were instructed not to participate or guide discussions — only observe silently. When my daughter’s turn came with an outside instructor, I was actively discouraged from attending because it might “make the kids uncomfortable.”

This perfectly summarizes what rotted Scouts BSA over the past decade: adults abandoned their responsibility to shape and mold youth. Scoutmasters exist to be mentors, teachers, and guides who impose a virtuous worldview. Because Scouting cowered in fear following the abuse settlement, there’s been wholesale retreat from adult responsibility in forming virtuous American citizens.

The Abuse Scandal Remains the Original Sin

If I could turn back time for Boy Scouts, I wouldn’t return to 2021 when DEI arrived or 2017 when girls joined. I’d travel to the 1980s when abuse cases started surfacing and beg leadership to confront the evil directly and make it right. That festering wound infected everything that followed for BSA.

Without time travel, Scouting can endure and serve American youth by teaching responsibility, courage, discernment, and honesty. Scouts BSA transformed my daughter’s life, just as it transformed mine.

Secretary Hegseth delivered desperately needed reinforcements to everyone working inside BSA daily to salvage it for future generations. His strong-arm tactics weren’t overreach — they were a rescue mission.

The organization that shaped millions of American boys into men was dying from ideological poison. Hegseth administered the antidote with the only language institutional bureaucracies understand: raw power backed by consequences.

Scouting America chose peace over extinction. That’s not surrender — it’s survival through the restoration of sanity.