Ousted lesbian den leader Jennifer Tyrrell says she is pleased the Boy Scouts of America will be voting on a proposal to end its ban on gay members. But she is upset the organization would continue to ban gay adults.

The membership numbers for Navigators USA, an alternative group to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), have more than doubled in the past year.

In March 2012, Navigators USA had 19 chapters, compared with today’s 45. There are currently up to 600 boys and girls enrolled on the program.

Rising membership levels of alternative organizations are in stark contrast to the Boy Scouts whose membership has declined by approximately one third by 2012.

The BSA has come under fire since its decision to uphold its controversial anti-gay ban in July 2012.

A recent poll shows a majority of Americans see no problem with out gay Boy Scouts.

The Quinnipiac University poll, released on 6 February, shows that 55 percent of Americans want the Boy Scouts of America to drop its ban on out members.  Only 33 percent wish for no change in the BSA's policy.

The national board of the Boy Scouts of America is meeting this week to decide whether or not to approve a policy change that would allow openly gay people to participate in scouting.

To mark the occasion, a group of activists converged upon BSA headquarters in Dallas, Texas, Monday (4 February) to deliver petitions with 1.4 million signatures to encourage them to end the gay ban.

In a pre-Super Bowl interview, President Barack Obama expressed his support for a change in the Boy Scouts' anti-gay member policy.

When asked by CBS News' Scott Pelley if gays should be allowed to join the Scouts, the president gave a simple 'yes.' When questioned to go more in depth, Obama said the following:

'Gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same as anybody else,' he said, as reported by the Atlantic magazine.

The Boy Scouts of America has asked the public for feedback as it considers ending its controversial ban on gay members and leaders.

The BSA national leadership is in the final stages of policy change that, if approved by its national board, would allow openly gay people to participate in scouting.

But the end of the national restriction regarding sexual orientation would not put an end to the ban on gays completely. Local chapters would still have the ability to not allow gay scouts or leaders.

An entire troop faces expulsion from the Boy Scouts of America for adopting a non-discrimination policy.

Last year Pack 442 of Cloverly, Maryland posted a clause on their website that reads: 'Pack 442 WILL NOT discriminate against any individual or family based on race, religion, national origin, ability, or sexual orientation.' Shortly after, the National Capital Area Council (NCAC), the larger Boy Scouts council to which 442 belongs, demanded the troop remove the message or risk removal from the Boy Scouts of America.

Derek Nance is a gay man who has just quit a job that he clearly loved - and he did so on YouTube.

Nance had worked for 10 years at a Boy Scouts of America Summer Camp, a job he held while earning Bachelors and Masters degrees in college. But he did so as a closeted gay man.

This week, he decided to quit hiding.

A California chapter of the Boy Scouts Scouts of America is challenging its national organization's ban on gay by recommending that a gay teen be awarded the rank of Eagle Scout.

Ryan Andresen, 18, was kicked out of his San Francisco-area troop after coming out last year. He had completed the requirements for Eagle status but his troop leader denied his application.

A conservative US newspaper has claimed that men who molest younger teenage boys are gay and not paedophiles, and that men who molest girls of the same age are just heterosexual.

The claims were made in an editorial published by Connecticut’s Republican-American newspaper titled ‘Mixed signals in Scout scandal’ defending the Boy Scouts of America’s membership ban on gays and lesbians.

‘Pedophiles are attracted to pre-pubescent children,’ the editorial reads.

It has been revealed that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) kept tabs on members they suspected of being gay alongside records of scoutmasters and other volunteers who were suspected of being child molesters.

The Boy Scouts says the files, known collectively as ‘perversion files’ were compiled to make sure pedophiles were kicked out and stayed out of Scouting.