Boy Scouts getting rid of the word 'boy'
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The Fong family enjoys doing outdoor activities together. But with one son in the boys scouts and a daughter in the girls scouts, Lei Fong was having to choose between outings. That has changed as eight-year old Jordan is now a cub scout, thanks to the early adopter program.
"So now because my sister is a boy scout, we can go together and do camping," said Hayden Fong who is a boy scout with San Francisco's Troop 14.
"The boys scouts are letting them do certain things that fit my daughter," explained his mother, Lei Fong.
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The main complaint coming from girl-scout parents is that the organization has never had the amount of rugged outdoor activities that the boys scouts have.
"I love the outdoors, I really like camping so my brother goes camping a lot, so I really wanted to go too so, we've gone camping a lot and I really like it," said Jordan Fong who now wants to make it all the up to Eagle Scout.
It will be up to each troop to decide whether or not to allow girls and if they do, initially girls and boys will be in separate units, while still participating together in outdoor activities.
"We could serve the entire family, such as you have boys and girls in the same family going to different kinds of events that was the reason we moved in the direction that we did," said Frank Yoke, Deputy Executive Director of the San Francisco Bay Area Council.
RELATED: Santa Rosa girls fight to join local Boy Scout troop
The Girl Scouts are not happy with the new boy scouts policy fearing they may lose girls.
As of February, the boy scouts will be called Scouts BSA--at the same time, girls can formally join a troop.
The Boy Scouts say change is always a work in progress.
