I grew up in the Boy Scouts, for many years I went to Scout camp. I backpacked thru a couple of thousands of miles with the Scouts. So lets just take all the politics out of this. The Scouts are a very honorable institution, and they are a benevolent organization. At the same time, they have political realities. The Mormon Church is very active in Scouting, as are many other Churches. However, it is no secret, the Mormon Church is very anti Gay rights, and they hold a very large vote in regards to Scouting Policy.
All that said, I'm very in favor of the vote to allow Gay members into troops based on a local decision. I don't think that the organization should deny membership from the top down to people they have never even met. This has to be the decision of the Scoutmaster. The kids are in his care, if he is comfortable with the person, that is enough.
I know, I was fortunate that my Scoutmaster was beyond reproach. A three war vet, he was awarded the family Doctor of the year after his famine relief efforts in Ethiopia. He had no problem with allowing a gay man, a felon at that, interacting with the troop. The man had the support of my mom, they worked together, he sponsored him, and he was the only person who could play the troop song on the piano.
Beyond that, I understand the real concern, we are dealing with kids. The Scouts would be negligent not to be concerned about sexual abuse. A lot of parents are going to be uncomfortable with this. And this calls for action from the LGBT community. The facts are, pedophilia and homosexuality are very different things. The truth is, most sexual abuse is from heterosexuals.
I don't know if that changes anything. The reality is that pedophiles infiltrate organizations like the scouts, because it gives them access to kids.
So lets take this to the next step. If the LGBT want to be a part of Scouts, then they have to discuss these fears that people have. You can't just ask people to not be concerned about their kids. And you can't ask the Scouts to fight the culture war. It is the responsibility of each of us. The Scouts can only respond to its membership.