Zach Wahls, who shot to advocacy fame after a video of him defending the parenting abilities of his lesbian mothers to the Iowa House of Representatives went viral.
The Boy Scouts of America has reaffirmed its policy that bans openly gay scouts and leaders, despite a petition, which received more than 275,000 signatures, urging the organization to change its homophobic stance.
Gay activist and Eagle Scout Zach Wahls hand delivered the petition, with the BSA committee agreeing to review the policy. The need for the petition comes from several unceremonious removals of BSA members, including 32-year-old mother Jennifer Tyrrell, who was removed as den leader for being a lesbian.
“It’s very clear that there’s a lot of support even within the Boy Scouts of America,” Wahls said before the committee made their decision. “What we’re trying to do is make sure we give them some real credence so they know that they have external support, that there are a lot people that have their back when it comes to actually changing this policy from a national perspective.”
Unfortunately, the pressure for BSA to overcome its prejudice had little effect. Spokespeople for the organization released a statement saying, “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 the issue with their children. Scouting believes that good people can personally disagree on this topic and still work together to achieve the life-changing benefits to youth through Scouting. While not all board members may personally agree with this policy, and may choose a different direction for their own organizations, BSA leadership agrees this is the best policy for the organization.”
Well, there won’t be an organization if people stop supporting it. If all the negative press and a petition with more than a quarter of a million signatures isn’t enough to change BSA’s bigoted minds, what will, except a total boycott?
It’s like Zach Wahls said after the announcement was made, “I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: this will be the official BSA policy up until the day it finally ends.”
So let’s end this, bitch! Who needs ’em? This is the 21st century. There must be an app that can teach kids how to tie knots . . .
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