LGBTQ Travel Company Queer Scout Says Scouting America Sued Over Trademarks Amid 'Political Pressure’

BreakingBusinessLGBTQ Travel Company Queer Scout Says Scouting America Sued Over Trademarks Amid 'Political Pressure’ByConor Murray,Forbes Staff. Murray is a Forbes news reporter covering entertainment trends.Follow AuthorJun 03, 2026, 02:48pm EDTToplineLGBTQ travel company Queer Scout pushed back against a trademark lawsuit filed by Scouting America, formerly Boy Scouts of America, filing a motion to dismiss while accusing the organization of suing amid pressure from the Trump administration to retreat from diversity, equity and inclusion commitments.Scouting America sued Queer Scout over trademark concerns. (AP Photo/LM Otero)Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.Key FactsQueer Scout, a travel company that offers tours and experiences in Colombia for gay men, challenged both the jurisdiction and merits of Scouting America’s lawsuit, noting the complaint was filed in federal court in Texas in February, while Queer Scout is based in Arizona.Scouting America sued Queer Scout over an application it filed to trademark its name, accusing it of “infringing and diluting Boy Scouts’ famous trademarks and falsely associating with Boy Scouts” by using an image of a fox in its logo and by using the “scout” moniker.In a motion to dismiss filed this week, Queer Scout said the lawsuit fails to prove why a “reasonable consumer” would confuse a travel company for adult gay men with a youth scouting organization, accusing Scouting America of trying to wield a “sweeping monopoly over the common word ‘SCOUT.’”Queer Scout founder Sam Castañeda Holdren pointed to the “broader context” surrounding the lawsuit in a statement shared with Forbes, noting Scouting America filed its complaint in late February, around the same time Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth pressured the organization to drop its DEI policies.Holdren said people are “naturally going to ask questions when an openly LGBTQ+ company becomes the target of aggressive federal litigation” during a time o...