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Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout who is the son of a lesbian couple, speaks during the annual GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Awards in New York City on March 24.
By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com
The Boy Scouts of America opens its annual meeting on Wednesday, and among the headlines coming out of it will be one the organization has grappled with over the years: gay membership.
The issue has come to the forefront again with the ouster of den leader Jennifer Tyrrell, who was removed from her position with her son’s Tiger Cubs pack in April because she is gay. An online petition to reinstate her has received more than 275,000 signatures, and Eagle Scout Zach Wahls, the son of another lesbian couple, will hand it over later Wednesday to scouting officials gathering for the two-day meeting in Kissimmee, Fla.
“As somebody who loves this organization and the principles for which it stands, I refuse to stand by idly as it forfeits its cultural relevancy at the very moment this country needs it most,” Wahls, 20, of Iowa City, Iowa, said in prepared remarks. With Tyrrell’s forced resignation and the ongoing exclusion of lesbians and gays, “the BSA darkens the light of those who would gladly serve their communities and country.”
Tyrrell served as den leader in her Bridgeport, Ohio, community for less than a year. The 32-year-old stay at home mother of four said she agreed to take up the role on the day she signed up her son, Cruz Burns, for the troop. She had concerns about the Boy Scouts' policy against homosexuals, but a Cubmaster said that they wouldn’t have problem locally.
“The best time in our lives we’ve had in the last year, it’s gone … because we can’t be scouts any more. I can’t stop crying,” she told msnbc.com in late April, noting that she would continue to push for a change to the policy to include all Americans. “… because we’re just people …gay people who love their kids.”
The Boy Scouts’ policy became a focus of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, when the justices sided with the organization in a lawsuit involving a former Assistant Scoutmaster who was gay, citing the protections of the First Amendment.
Boy Scouts spokesman Deron Smith said in an email that accepting the petition was not on the agenda, but scouting officials would accept it in a private meeting “out of respect for different viewpoints.”
“Scouting maintains that its youth development program is not the appropriate environment to introduce or discuss, in any way, same-sex attraction. Parents and caregivers should have the right to decide when and how to discuss this issue with their children,” he wrote in an e-mail statement to msnbc.com.
Smith said there were no plans to change the organization’s stance.
“Throughout the years some have expressed their disagreement with this policy. The BSA is a voluntary, private organization that sets policies that allow it to most effectively accomplish its mission. Its policies are not meant as a social commentary outside of the Scouting program,” he said.
But Wahls said it was time for the Boy Scouts to move forward, citing the changes in the U.S. military which ended its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that had barred gays from serving if they acknowledged their sexual orientation.
Like Jennifer Tyrrell, Wahls' mothers had served in leadership roles in the local Scouts in the Wisconsin town of Marshfield.
“They weren’t distractions, troublemakers or any less moral than any other parent. Just like the parents of my fellow Scouts, my moms just wanted a rewarding and enriching experience for their son,” he said.
Noting that supportive comments for the petition came from current and former scouts and scout leaders, Wahls said, “They are ready for this progress. We are ready for this progress.”
“If the Boy Scouts of America wishes to maintain its position of moral leadership, its path forward is clear: Reinstate Jennifer Tyrrell and end its discriminatory policy,” he said in the statement. “With this new leadership comes a new era of Scouting in America — one that serves entire communities, including our gay sisters, mothers and daughters, and one that builds the content and character of all men, including our gay brothers, fathers and sons.”
