Ryan joined the Boy Scouts when he was just six years old, and since then, he's dreamed of earning his Eagle award -- the highest rank in the Boy Scouts.
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.
A Boy Scout gets his Eagle by earning many badges, completing all lower Scout rank requirements, and carrying out an approved final project. So Ryan decided to build a "Tolerance Wall" for his school, to show bully victims -- like Ryan -- that they are not alone. Ryan worked countless hours with elementary students to amass a wall of 288 unique tiles, all illustrating acts of kindness.
But when leadership in Troop 212 (San Francisco Bay Area) found out that Ryan was gay, the Scoutmaster said he refused to sign the official paperwork designating Ryan as an Eagle Scout, despite the fact that Ryan completed all of the requirements.
I find the policies of the BSA to be horrible, especially when things like this happen. There is no reason this young man should be denied the title of Eagle Scout. It is incredibly biased and discriminatory and frankly makes me sick. I understand that the BSA is a 'private organisation' and 'reserves the right to make their own policies' but that doesn't mean we should accept it.
If you would like to help this young man achieve his life long goal of becoming an Eagle Scout, please visit the following link and sign the petition. There's no definite that he will receive it, but at least you will have helped try.
To directly quote the website;
I find the policies of the BSA to be horrible, especially when things like this happen. There is no reason this young man should be denied the title of Eagle Scout. It is incredibly biased and discriminatory and frankly makes me sick. I understand that the BSA is a 'private organisation' and 'reserves the right to make their own policies' but that doesn't mean we should accept it.
If you would like to help this young man achieve his life long goal of becoming an Eagle Scout, please visit the following link and sign the petition. There's no definite that he will receive it, but at least you will have helped try.
http://www.change.org/petitions/boy-scouts-don-t-let-your-anti-gay-policy-deny-my-son-his-eagle-award?utm_campaign=friend_inviter_modal&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=31630787