Rick Perry: Boy Scouts are ‘better off’ without gay scoutmasters

Republican Presidential candidate Rick Perry has said he thinks the Boy Scouts of America are “better off” not allowing openly gay scoutmasters.

The executive committee of the Boy Scouts of America has backed a resolution that would end the organisaton’s blanket ban on gay leaders. It would mean that individual Scout units could set their own policy.

Perry last year said he was “greatly disappointed” that the Boy Scouts would begin to allow gay members.

He has now gone further, to say that the organisation should not have made the latest change, to allow gay scoutmasters.

“I believe that scouting would be better off if they didn’t have openly gay scoutmasters,” the former Governor made the revelation on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’

He is one of the most notorious anti-gay Republicans, having compared homosexuality to alcoholism and regularly speaking at anti-gay rallies.

Perry attempted to back away from the comparison, claiming he got “deflected” onto a “contentious issue”.

Fellow 2016 presidential hopeful, Scott Walker who launched campaign this week, also voiced his support of the ban on gay troop leaders in the Boy Scouts of America.