In a surprising move, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has approved of a resolution that will open the door to gay adults to be accepted as scout leaders. The resolution is a move forward in ending the perceived discrimination of the group against homosexual scouts.

The organization's executive board drafted the groundbreaking resolution last week and will be meeting to ratify it on July 27. If it passes, the resolution will become policy.

A statement released by the Boy Scouts states that the "resolution will allow chartered organizations to select adult leaders without regard to sexual orientation, continuing Scouting's longstanding policy of chartered organizations selecting their leaders."

This resolution is being looked at as a big step towards amending a policy that has created a deep division within the ranks of the century old organization. While still being viewed as largely traditional, the group has shown that it is trying to adapt to the times.

The Boy Scouts of America ended a ban in 2013 that led to openly gay boys being accepted as scouts. And in a speech he gave in May, current BSA president and former US defense secretary Robert Gates, said that the ban on gay scout leaders had to be lifted, because it was no longer feasible, especially in light of the "growing internal challenges to our current membership policy from some councils" and "the social, political and juridicial changes taking place in the country."

Some councils have actually started making changes regarding the members they allowed in even before Gates presented the resolution before the board. The local Scouts council in New York hired an 18-year-old openly gay Eagle Scout to work at camp and said they "judged his application on the merits" and not on his sexual orientation.

However, the new resolution also states that "this change would also respect the right of religious chartered organizations to continue to choose adult leaders whose beliefs are consistent with their own," meaning that some Boy Scout troops under religious organizations still have the option to pass over gay leaders.

The resolution has been hailed as a positive, and necessary, step forward, even though the policy change is not perfect.