NY Boy Scouts hire gay Eagle Scout despite national policy
Source: Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) The Boy Scouts' New York chapter said Thursday that it has hired the nation's first openly gay Eagle Scout as a summer camp leader, a direct and public challenge to the national scouting organization's ban on openly gay adult members.
The Boy Scouts' national spokesman, Deron Smith, said there was no change in that policy, which has been highly divisive. As for any further response to the New York announcement, Smith said, "We are looking into the matter."
The challenge to the national headquarters was laid down by the Boy Scouts' Greater New York Councils, which announced the hiring of Pascal Tessier, an 18-year-old Eagle Scout. Tessier has been a vocal advocate of opening the 105-year-old organization to gay scouts and leaders.
"We received this application from this young man, and we found him highly qualified on all the merits," board member Richard G. Mason said by phone. The New York group, like some other local scouting councils, has said before that it is open to gay employees.
Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ny-boy-scouts-hire-gay-eagle-scout-despite-170003371--finance.html
RKP5637
(67,104 posts)mahannah
(893 posts)FSogol
(45,481 posts)Gore1FL
(21,128 posts)Chemisse
(30,809 posts)Hopefully the headquarters won't nix this.
Sienna86
(2,149 posts)Another example of brave people doing the right thing.
tomm2thumbs
(13,297 posts)They eventually give up. Or die off.
Keep. On. It.
aikoaiko
(34,169 posts)Most folks in scouts realized this was going to happen when policy allowed gay scouts but still not gay scout leaders. There is still resistance but the inevitable wil happen.
Next atheist scouts will find some justice in scouts.
F4lconF16
(3,747 posts)The anti-atheist parts of scouting were the hardest for me, since I hadn't realized I was bisexual yet. It was always kinda fun when they asked me to say a prayer, though--they learned not to do that after a while I was...rather clear about my opinions. Unfortunately the Christianity in scouts was never the nice kind, either--much more the anti-gay bible-thumping kind, with a heavy dose of nationalism thrown in as well. I've never seen an organization that so thoroughly and subtly indoctrinated kids with god, guns, and glory.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)riversedge
(70,197 posts)F4lconF16
(3,747 posts)I very distinctly remember the anti-gay sentiment from when I was in Scouts. I wish I had realized I was bisexual then--maybe I could have done something more than just call it out when I heard it. Provide them an example of who the LGBT population is.
Actually, that's something...maybe I'll talk to an old scout leader of mine and go see if I can set up a talk with the troop if I'm ever back in town. It's too bad that I've been away for a while, it would have had more of an impact on the boys that knew me.