of America announced a proposal to no longer deny membership to youth on the basis of sexual orientation, but maintain its ban on openly gay adult leaders. The LDS church released a statement in support of the proposal. On May 23, 2013, the 1,400 voting members of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America voted to lift the ban of letting openly gay individuals into the Scouts by 61% to 38%. Openly gay boys are allowed to become Scouts from January 2014 but openly gay adults were still forbidden to be leaders. Pascal Tessier, a 17-year-old from Chevy Chase, Md., became the first known openly gay Boy Scout to be an Eagle Scout in 2014. Tessier became the first openly gay adult Boy Scout in the nation to be hired as a summer camp leader when he was hired by the Boy Scouts' New York chapter, Greater New York Councils. In May 2015, BSA President Robert Gates told the national meeting of the BSA in Atlanta that he believes that the current policy of excluding openly gay adults from leadership positions is "unsustainable" and should be changed at an early date. He told the organization that recent events have made it increasingly likely that the BSA will face serious legal challenges to that policy. He advocated removing this exclusion from the BSA's policies but allowing each chartered organization (70% of which are religious organizations) to establish criteria for their units' adult leaders consistent with the organization's values. Gates indicated in subsequent comments that he expected the BSA to take action on his recommendations by October 2015. On July 10, 2015, the Boy Scouts of America Executive Committee agreed with Gates, and voted unanimously to approve a policy change that would effectively end the national ban on gay adults. The vote by the Executive Committee required ratification by the National Board prior to enactment. Officials for the Boy Scouts of America stated that the vote would take place later that month. Affirming the decision of the National Executive Committee, on July 27, the National Executive Board voted to lift the organization's ban on openly gay adults. The final vote to approve included 45 votes in favor and 12 votes against. Reactions During the period when BSA had restrictive homosexuality-related policies, there were expressions of support and opposition influenced by existing partisan interest groups and cultural divides in society: Support