Boy Scout leaders vote Thursday to lift ban on gay scouts

Today near their Dallas headquarters, scout leaders from across the country gathered for the annual Boy Scouts of America conference. This year’s conference it was the culminating battle over whether or not to allow openly gay members in the Boy Scouts of America.

Scout officials have scheduled a vote on Thursday to prohibit the exclusion of young Scouts based on solely sexual orientation, though the ban on LGBT adult leaders would remain in effect according to ABC News. The 1,400 members casting ballots Thursday have several groups trying to persuade their decision, including recent religious groups protests, mailings to voting members, and gay-rights support rallies, like Scouts for Equality.

After months of protests and campaigns by groups on both sides of the issues, high-ranking Scouts in the organization have spoken both for and against the exclusion policy. The arguments are mainly rooted in the Eagle Scout honor versus the biblical nature of the Scout’s roots as divulged by The Washington Post. John Wade, a former Eagle Scout, and current minister from Tennessee said earlier this week that allowing gay scouts “really presents a danger as well as a conflict of interest to what BSA was originally started as”

With several official voting members projected to agree with Wade’s reasoning, supporters of the vote can only hope as Zach Wahls, founder of Scouts for Equality, said the organization believes to have about 300 "yes" votes confirmed from efforts and around 100 more leaning yes. "We've done everything that we can," Wahls said to href=http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/boy-scouts-meet-decide-policy-gay-scouts-19230847?page=2#.UZ1V15WFbww>ABC News,"We feel like we are very prepared for any outcome.”