First Openly Gay Eagle Scout

A Maryland teenager has become the first openly gay Boy Scout to achieve the youth organization’s highest rank.

Pascal Tessier, 17, accepted the Eagle Scout badge Monday night in Chevy Chase, Md. Tessier, who received the honor at a meeting of Boy Scout Troop 52, is the first known out scout to attain the Boy Scouts of America’s highest rank since the organization's national council voted to lift its ban on gay members (but not adult leaders) last May. The new policy went into effect January of this year.

“It’s just really amazing, and it honestly hasn’t really sunk in yet,” Tessier told The Washington Post. “We didn’t know if it was going to happen at all.”

Boy Scouts of America prepare for historic policy change to allow gay youth

The Boy Scouts of America will accept openly gay youths starting on New Year’s Day, a historic change that has prompted the BSA to ponder a host of potential complications — ranging from policies on tentmates and showers to whether Scouts can march in gay pride parades.

Yet despite their be-prepared approach, BSA leaders are rooting for the change to be a non-event, comparable to another New Year’s Day in 2000 when widespread fears of digital-clock chaos to start the new millennium proved unfounded.

“My hope is there will be the same effect this Jan. 1 as the Y2K scare,” said Brad Haddock, a BSA national executive board member who chairs the policy implementation committee. “It’s business as usual, nothing happens and we move forward.”

Some churches are dropping their sponsorship of Scout units because of the new policy and some families are switching to a new conservative alternative called Trail Life USA. But massive defections haven’t materialized and most major sponsors, including the Roman Catholic and Mormon churches, are maintaining ties.

“There hasn’t been a whole lot of fallout,” said Haddock, a lawyer from Wichita, Kan. “If a church said they wouldn’t work with us, we’d have a church right down the street say, ‘We’ll take the troop.’”

The new policy was approved in May, with support from 60 percent of the 1,400 voting members of the BSA’s National Council. The vote followed bitter nationwide debate, and was accompanied by an announcement that the BSA would continue to exclude openly gay adults from leadership positions.

N.C. churches drop Boy Scout charters over policy to allow gay scouts

A handful of churches in North Carolina say they’re not renewing their charters with the Boy Scouts of America after the organization announced this year that it would no longer deny membership to openly gay boys.

The First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Gastonia, N.C., announced last week it would not renew its longtime charter,reported The Gaston Gazette. Senior Pastor Matt Kuiken emailed a statement to The Gazette saying the decision was made “with deep sadness.”

“While we welcome all in the name of Christ to worship and enjoy the ministries of First ARP Church, and while Troop #4 of the BSA has been a wonderful part of our history and ministry, and a great blessing to all who have participated in its activities, this change in policy by the BSA has compelled us to take action,” according to a statement from Senior Pastor Matt Kuiken.

Piedmont Council CEO Connie Bowes, who oversees Boy Scout troops in 11 N.C. counties, said two additional churches in Cleveland County said this month they are severing ties with the organization. She declined to name the churches.

Southern Baptists Past Resolution Quitting the Boy Scouts

The Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution today opposing and expressing disappointment in the Boy Scouts of America's recent decision to allow openly gay youth to participate in the organization. 

While the resolution does not require individual churches within the convention to cut ties with any scout troops, it does express solidarity with churches and leaders who decide to do so, according to the Associated Press. The resolution also calls on the BSA to remove executive and board leaders who voted to allow openly gay youth to serve within the organization without consulting the religious institutions that sponsor many local troops.

Gays Destroying Boy Scouts, Marriage & Society

What Happens When a Gay Boy Scout Comes Out to His Camp Leader

Exclusive hidden camera footage reveals one Boy Scout camp director's response to a long-serving scout who is coming out as gay.

'Intolerant Left' for Bullying 'Sexual Morality' Out of the Boy Scouts

Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) took the floor in the House this week to rip the "intolerant Left" for bullying the sexual morality out of the Boy Scouts by campaigning for an end to their discriminatory policies.

BOY SCOUTS VOTES TO LIFT BAN ON GAY MEMBERS, RETAIN BAN ON GAY LEADERS

At their convention in Dallas, the 1,400 voting members of The Boy Scouts of America have voted 61% to 38% to approve a resolution lifting a ban on gay scouts. The ban would remain on gay leaders.

Matt Barber tweets homophobic Boy Scout cartoon

Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel tweet this cartoon implying that a gay Boy Scout troop leader would sexually assault his scouts:

Family Research Council's Odd Webcast Supporting the Boy Scouts Ban on Gays

For Some Strange Reason Rick Perry Compares Supporting Scouts' Gay Ban to Opposing Slavery

Texas governor Rick Perry speaks on the Family Research Council's "Stand With Scouts Sunday" program and somehow brings up pop culture and slavery into a discussion on the Boy Scouts' ban on out scouts and leaders.

Perry said that the Scouts should not be swayed by "pop culture" to allow openly gay scouts or troop leaders (the organization may soon allow the former). He also began rambling about how former Texas governor Sam Houston opposed slavery and it cost him his governorship.

Zach Wahls Destroys Anti-Gay Activist in Boy Scout Debate on CNN

Boy Scouts Say Under 18 And Gay now OK

The new Boy Scouts Of America proposed policy would allow gay or bisexual youth and teens to participate in Scouting, but once they become legal adults, they would be forced out of the Boy Scouts — specifically because they are gay.  The Scouts’ National Council will vote on them measure in May.

Boy Scouts to Recommend Admitting Gay Youth But Still Bar Gay Adults

Boy Scouts of America officials are going to call for an end to the organization’s ban on gay scouts but recommend continuing to prohibit gay adults from serving as troop leaders.

The resolution still must be voted on by the organization’s national council in May, but if it is approved, “no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone,” BSA spokesman Deron Smith told the Reuters news service. But it would leave in place the ban on openly gay adult leaders, the Associated Press notes. The proposed policy was published on the BSA leadership blog today, and an accompanying statement confirms that it “would maintain the current membership policy for all adult leaders.”

The group had earlier indicated it might adopt a policy of allowing each individual troop to set its own policy on admitting LGBT scouts and leaders. The proposal unveiled today came after several months of research and surveys, BSA officials said.

California tax bill seeks to punish Boy Scouts for anti-gay ban

California lawmakers are considering taking some tax exemptions away from youth groups that do not accept gay, transgender or atheist members – a move intended to pressure the Boy Scouts of America to lift its ban on gay Scouts and troop leaders.

Some cities have withdrawn free rent and other subsidies from the Boy Scouts over the years, but legislation introduced by Democratic state Sen. Ricardo Lara would make California the first U.S. state to target the Scouts for its anti-gay policy.

The bill is scheduled for its first committee hearing Wednesday

Chipotle Cancels Sponsorship of Utah Boy Scout Event Over Antigay Policy

Chipotle Mexican Grill announced today that has cancelled its sponsorship of the Utah Scout-A-Rama, just one day after the company confirmed that the Boy Scouts' ban on gay members violates the company's antidiscrimination policy.

Southern Baptists urge Boy Scouts to continue its ban on gays

The nation’s largest Protestant group is calling on members of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America to uphold a ban on gay Scouts and leaders when it votes in May.

The executive committee of the 16-million member Southern Baptist Convention passed the resolution Tuesday, stating that a proposal to alter the ban would “place the Boy Scouts organization at odds with a consistent biblical worldview on matters of human sexuality, making it an organization that would no longer complement, but rather contradict, our belief in God and His moral precepts that serve as the basis for our Christian faith.”

Randy Rainbow as a Boy Scouts Of America?

Ellen Hopes The Boy Scouts Let Their Neckerchief, Short-Short Wearing Members Be Gay

Boy Scouts Decide To Uphold Gay Ban, Form Task Force To Study The Issue

The Board of Directors of the Boy Scouts of America have decided to form a task force to further study its controversial ban on gay members and Scout leaders, upholding its discriminatory policy in the interim.

“After careful consideration and extensive dialogue within the Scouting family, along with comments from those outside the organization, the volunteer officers of the Boy Scouts of America’s National Executive Board concluded that due to the complexity of this issue, the organization needs time for a more deliberate review of its membership policy,” the BSA said at the conclusion of their board meeting.