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The Utah activist group Restore Our Humanity on Friday applied for charter membership with the Boy Scouts of America, which in July lifted its blanket ban on gay leaders.
The non-profit group presented an application to the Great Salt Lake Council of the BSA on Friday morning, according to a news release.
According to the group's Facebook page, the application was endorsed by several city and county officials, including Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker, mayoral candidate Jackie Biskupski, and Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. Several religious leaders also endorsed the application.
ROH director Mark Lawrence has said that getting the new Utah troop approved and running may be an uphill battle in the conservative state where most troops are sponsored by the Mormon church, it could be a model for the future.
"I think it's important for us to do this now," Lawrence said at an August news conference.
Because the new troop will welcome gay leaders, Lawrence said, it could create new interest in the scouting organization.
Lawrence announced the plans to sponsor a troop just days after the Boy Scouts of America on July 27 lifted a blanket ban on gay leaders.
The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints — the nation's largest sponsor of Boy Scout units — said it was deeply troubled by the decision to allow gay leaders, describing it as inconsistent with the church's teaching and the Boy Scouts' traditional values. The policy change allows church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons.
Restore Our Humanity backed the court fight overturning Utah's ban on same-sex marriage, by finding lawyers and gay couples to serve as plaintiffs in the lawsuit that overturned the ban in 2013.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Utah's appeal in the case last year, legalizing same-sex marriage in the state.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.