Photo by Flickr user Daniel M. Reck
By now you’ve probably heard the controversy surrounding a boy scout from Moraga who was denied his Eagle Scout award for being gay. The scout’s mother posted a petition on Change.org that currently has over 390,000 signatures.
From the petition website:
Ryan is now a senior in high school, and just completed the final requirements to earn his Eagle Award. He’s an honor student with great SAT scores, who’s hoping to attend the University of San Francisco. But because he recently came out to his friends and family as gay, leaders from our local Boy Scout troop say they won’t approve his Eagle award.
Troop 212 released a statement explaining why they rejected him:
“Recently, a Scout proactively notified his unit leadership and Eagle Scout Counselor that he does not agree to Scouting’s principle of ‘Duty to God’ and does not meet Scouting’s membership standard on sexual orientation,” the statement reads. “While the BSA did not proactively ask for this information, based on his statements and after discussion with his family he is being informed that he is no longer eligible for membership in Scouting.”
Note that in addition to sexual orientation it mentions not agreeing to “Duty to God” although the boy scout’s mother denies that:
“The Boy Scouts of America’s statement that Ryan does not agree to Scouting’s principle of “Duty to God” is inaccurate,” she said in a statement released Friday. “Ryan has never said that he does not believe in a higher power, and the only reason he’s being denied the rank of Eagle is because the Boy Scouts of America has a problem with Ryan being gay.”
On the one hand the Boy Scouts are a private organization so they can pretty much make their own rules regarding who gets awarded, on the other hand not awarding a kid just for being gay is not very nice. The girl scouts don’t have such a rule by the way which I think is interesting. Do you think the boy scout, Ryan Andersen, should have been made an Eagle Scout?