Boy Scouts' chief says ban on gay adults 'unsustainable'

The head of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has said that the organisation's long-standing ban on participation by openly gay adults is unsustainable.
Robert Gates said no changes would be made at the meeting, but opened the door to a future policy review.The former US Defence Secretary cited defiant chapters, possible legal challenges and other developments related to gay rights in the US.Gay rights groups have welcomed Mr Gates' comments."The status quo in our movement's membership standards cannot be sustained," Robert Gates said at the group's annual meeting in Atlanta.However, he raised the possibility that the organisation could revise its policy to allow local chapters to decide for themselves whether to allow gay adults to serve as leaders.In 2013, the national organisation decided to to allow openly gay youth to participate as scouts, but kept its ban on adults in place. The came into effect in January of 2014, and was the result of a bitter internal debate.Mr Gates, who was in charge of the US military when congress voted to repeal the ban on openly gay service members, became the BSA's president in May 2014. Upon assuming office, Mr Gates said that he personally would have favoured ending the ban on gay adults. However, he did not want any further debate on the issue at that time.On Thursday, he said recent developments "have confronted us with urgent challenges I did not foresee and which we cannot ignore".