Bill Maher has hit out after officials changed the name of the Boy Scouts of America to Scouting America to promote inclusion.
Speaking on his show ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ on Friday night, the comedian, 69, expressed his concern over the name change which came into effect this month.
Maher said: ‘The whole f****** country is an Onion headline, the Boy Scouts of America cannot be called Boy Scouts anymore because it’s exclusionary.
‘Like there isn’t a girl scouts, like this is some crime against nature. People are different, it’s now Scouting America.’
Ohio Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan, added: ‘They have to achieve, they have to put forth effort, that’s part of maturing and becoming a full functioning adult.
‘To take that away is insane, to say this is targeted towards young boys because young boys are different than young girls. The approach needs to be different.’
Maher interrupted, joking: ‘Yeah they think it’s funny when you fart in a sleeping bag’.
New York Times columnist Pamela Paul added: ‘I understand why girls would want to be in the boy scouts: It’s a lot more fun.
Speaking on his show ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ on Friday night, the comedian, 69, expressed his concern over the name change which came into effect this month
Ohio Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan said it was important that Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts were left separate
The name change was announced by the organization last May, saying it reflected ‘continuing efforts to welcome everyone to experience the benefits of Scouting’
‘The only thing really, as a former girl scout, that the girl scouts had going for them is the cookies.’
Kid Rock, a well known Republican and ardent supporter of President Trump, said: ‘Sorry to put it so harsh but we lost a good portion of a few generations of men who just turned into complete f***ing p***ies.’
The name change was announced by the organization last May, saying it reflected ‘continuing efforts to welcome everyone to experience the benefits of Scouting’.
Roger A. Krone, president and CEO of Scouting America, said: ‘Though our name will be new, our mission remains unchanged: we are committed to teaching young people to be Prepared. For Life.
‘This will be a simple but very important evolution as we seek to ensure that everyone feels welcome in Scouting.’
The historic change is the latest in a series designed to take the troop into the 21st century, including allowing gay youth and welcoming girls throughout its ranks.
Boy Scouts of America began allowing gay youth in 2013 and ended a blanket ban on gay adult leaders in 2015.
In 2017, it made the historic announcement that girls would be accepted as Cub Scouts as of 2018 and into the flagship Boy Scout program – renamed Scouts BSA – in 2019.
Kid Rock, a well known Republican and ardent supporter of President Trump, also appeared on the show and gave his two cents
The historic change is the latest in a series designed to take the troop into the 21st century. Roger A. Krone, president and CEO of Scouting America is seen here
The move towards more inclusivity at the Scouts comes amid a crackdown on DEI initiatives by President Trump
After a highpoint over the last decade of over 2 million members in 2018, the organization currently services just over 1 million youths, including more than 176,000 girls and young women. Membership peaked in 1972 at almost 5 million.
The move by the Boy Scouts to accept girls throughout their ranks strained a bond with the Girl Scouts of the USA, which sued, saying it created marketplace confusion and damaged their recruitment efforts.
They reached a settlement agreement after a judge rejected those claims, saying both groups are free to use words like ‘scouts’ and ‘scouting.’
The Boy Scouts´ $2.4 billion bankruptcy reorganization plan took effect in 2023, allowing the organization to keep operating while compensating the more than 80,000 men who say they were sexually abused as children while scouting.
The move towards more inclusivity at the Scouts comes amid a crackdown on DEI initiatives by President Trump.
The newly inaugurated commander-in-chief was quick to make good on his own promise of demolishing DEI policies in his second term.
Earlier this month, more than 8,000 pages were scrubbed from government websites as he demanded the federal workforce comply with his new DEI initiatives.
Many of the pages contained information about ‘climate initiatives’ or ‘transgender care.’
The move towards more inclusivity at the Scouts comes amid a crackdown on DEI initiatives by President Trump
The scrubs come after the Office of Personnel Management sent a two-page memo demanding all heads of government agencies comply with measures to end DEI programs.
That memo laid out ‘steps to end federal funding of gender ideology.’
It included an order to ‘take down all outward facing media that inculcate or promote gender ideology.’
Trump also ordered federal employees to remove their pronouns from their email signatures.
And he required all federal agencies to ‘recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.’