Tag Archives: Boy Scouts

WATCH: Ellen DeGeneres, former Girl Scout, voices opinion on BSA

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Ellen DeGeneres and her younger self as a Girl Scout.

Ellen DeGeneres and her younger self as a Girl Scout.

Lesbian comedian and talk show host Elle DeGeneres has chimed in on the Boy Scouts’ opting to delay a decision to allow gays until May.

A Girl Scout once herself who had a brother in Boy Scouts, DeGeneres said on her talk show that she believes in the organization and encourages people to worry about more important things on campouts than sexual orientation, such as bears and staying alive.

“I think what the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts are trying to teach is important,” she said. “They’re trying to teach kids to be leaders, and the more that we teach people how to accept people for who they are, the more self confident they’ll be and the better leaders they’ll become.”

Watch it below.

Continue reading “WATCH: Ellen DeGeneres, former Girl Scout, voices opinion on BSA” »

—  Anna Waugh

8 more TX elected officials sign letter calling for Scouts to keep gay ban

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We couldn’t resist reposting the above editorial cartoon from this week’s Viewpoints page.

Several additional Republican elected officials in Texas have signed a letter urging the Boy Scouts to keep its ban on gays since we first posted about the letter the other day. The letter now has a total of 45 signatures, including its first member of Congress — Kenny Marchant of Irving — as well as state Reps. Jonathan Strickland of Bedford and Linda “Mercedes Benz” Harper-Brown of Irving; and Collin County Commissioner Matt Shaheen. Here are all eight of the latest inductees to this week’s Hall of Shame:

• Congressman Kenny Marchant (R-Irving)
• State Senator Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels)
• State Representative Jonathan Stickland (R-Bedford)
• State Representative Charles Perry (R-Lubbock)
• State Representative Jason Isaac (R-Dripping Springs)
• State Representative Larry Phillips (R-Sherman)
• State Representative Linda Harper-Brown (R-Irving)
• Collin County Commissioner Pct 1 Matt Shaheen

Also, be sure to check out some of the comments below the post about the letter on the Texas Values website. This is our personal favorite, just for its sheer ignorance:

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—  John Wright

Former Girl Scout Jessica Farrar calls Boy Scouts’ gay ban ‘unconscionable’

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Rep. Jessica Farrar

State Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston

After reading the long list of Republican state legislators who signed a letter calling for the Boys Scouts to keep their gay ban, it’s sure nice to see at least one Texas lawmaker taking a public stand on the right side of history. Now, won’t a few others please hurry up and join her? Here’s Rep. Jessica Farrar’s full statement:

Rep. Farrar to Boy Scouts of America: Lift Ban, Promote Inclusion

AUSTIN, TX — In support of all Texans, Representative Jessica Farrar urges the Boy Scouts of America to adopt a national policy of full inclusivity and non-discrimination without further delay. As a Girl Scout, Representative Farrar believes that scouting and similar youth organizations that play a crucial role in establishing common community values should be open to all individuals.

Representative Farrar said, “Gay youth have been excluded by the Boy Scouts for too long. Socially ostracizing anyone is immoral; causing mental anguish to potentially emotionally vulnerable youth is unconscionable.” She continued, “Inclusion has long been considered a hallmark of the American experience. The Boy Scouts should embrace this value, too. Local control is not enough; inclusion should be an organization-wide policy.”

While Representative Farrar regrets that the Boy Scouts of America did not make a decision today, she understands that some people need more time to contemplate this issue. However, she urges the Boy Scouts of America to stand with young American men and women by promoting full diversity and inclusion among its membership.

The Boy Scouts of America have the chance to stop building walls and start building bridges. They have the opportunity to promote equality, teach tolerance, embrace diversity, and implement policies of inclusivity that will benefit the state and the nation.

The Boy Scouts of America is an otherwise honorable organization that is responsible for broadening the views of youth while educating them to have an ethical role in their communities. As the Boy Scouts look to their future, they have a chance to chart a new course. Representative Farrar stands hopeful that this course will begin with an official, fully inclusive non-discrimination policy that embraces the values all scouts hold dear.

—  John Wright

Not all gays want BSA to lift ban

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scoutsLocal gay man Eli Hernandez is against the Boy Scouts of America ending its national gay ban.

Hernandez sent a statement to Dallas Voice today that states he is against including gays and lesbians in the organization because the “Scouts is not a place where a child should learn about sex or sexuality – whether gay or straight.”

“My position on this issue is simple – the Scouts is a place for children to learn leadership, character, physical fitness and citizenship,” Hernandez writes. “It’s a place where kids can be themselves, and learn from other kids and responsible adults.”

Luckily for Hernandez, the BSA National Executive Board postponed its decision on the policy change until May so its members have more time to hear feedback from councils, citizens and sponsors.

“While the Boy Scouts of America debates this issue, I do hope that they consider the needs of children first and not cave into liberals and the narrow gay agenda,” Hernandez said.

Read Hernandez’s full statement below.

Continue reading “Not all gays want BSA to lift ban” »

—  Anna Waugh

Poll finds majority of nation’s voters support ending BSA’s gay ban

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A national poll released today by Quinnipiac University in Connecticut found that American voters favored the Boy Scouts ending its national no-gays policy 55 to 33 percent.

The poll’s results came out the same day that the BSA’s National Executive Board postponed a vote that would place the decision to include gays with local troops. The discussion will continue at the national meeting in May.

The university surveyed 1,772 voters between Jan. 30 and Feb. 4. The margin of error is 2.3 percentage points.

The support was higher among women, who support the inclusion of gay Scouts by 61 percent, compared to 49 percent of men who were polled.

Support was highest among white Catholics, who favored ending the ban by 63 percent. Evangelical Protestants followed with 56 percent backing the policy’s end. Overall Protestants favor opening up Scouting by 44 percent.

Only 33 percent of voters polled disagreed with changing the policy.

“Now that the Armed Forces ban on openly gay service members has been lifted, and polls show increasing acceptance of same-sex marriage, most American voters think it’s time to open up the Boy Scouts, too,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

—  Anna Waugh

BREAKING: Boy Scouts delay vote on gay ban

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Gay Scouts and leaders deliver boxes with 1.4 million signatures from combined Change.org petitions requesting the Boy Scouts end its national no-gays ban on Monday. (Anna Waugh/Dallas Voice)

IRVING — The Boy Scouts of America National Executive Board has delayed a vote on removing the national gay ban.

The decision came early in the third day of the board’s three-day meeting at the DFW Airport Marriott. A possible vote was expected today, but the board has decided to discuss the issue more at its national board meeting in May where 1,400 members will vote on a resolution. That meeting will take place May 22 at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine.

“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,” BSA spokesman Deron Smith said in a statement. “To that end, the National Executive Board directed its committees to further engage representatives of Scouting’s membership and listen to their perspectives and concerns. This will assist the officers’ work on a resolution on membership standards.”

Cece Cox, CEO of Resource Center Dallas, said she doesn’t believe this is the end of the issue and urged people working with the Scouts to redouble their efforts.

“The Center is disappointed that the Boy Scouts of America and its board of directors are deferring a decision until May on whether or not to repeal a ban that continues to force gay Scouts and LGBT Scout leaders to lie about who they are,” Cox said. “The ban is a relic of discrimination and disinformation; it should be on the ash heap of history.  We urge the Boy Scout board to stand for equality and fairness and join the ranks of both corporate American and the American people who value their lesbian and gay employees, friends and neighbors.”

The Human Rights Campaign said the delay meant that more action is needed to sway the BSA toward an inclusive policy. HRC originally supported the proposed policy to allow local troops to decide whether to admit gay Scouts and leaders, but later called for a national nondiscrimination policy to protect gay members and leaders in every troop.

Continue reading “BREAKING: Boy Scouts delay vote on gay ban” »

—  Anna Waugh

GOP lawmakers sign letter opposing BSA policy change; prayer rally set

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Dozens of state representatives, senators and other elected officials have come out against the Boy Scouts of America’s proposal to remove its national gay ban.

Anti-gay group Texas Values published a letter signed by more than 30 Republican elected officials across the state — from Ag Commissioner Todd Staples to Collin County Judge Keith Self — that urges the organization “to stick with their decades of support for family values and moral principles.”

“Scouts begin each meeting with an Oath, ‘to do my duty, to God and my country, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight,’” the letter reads in part. “By caving in to pressure from the social left, the national leadership would violate each of those principles.”

Texas Values has planned a “Save Our Scouts” prayer vigil and rally at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the BSA’s national headquarters in Irving.

The group is encouraging citizens from “every walk of life who cares about the moral fabric of our nation and all that the Boy Scouts of America has stood for since 1910” to attend the rally.

The National Executive Board is expected to vote on the proposed change Wednesday.

BSA has been inundated with phone calls and emails from people voicing their opinion on lifting the ban since last week. Spokesman Deron Smith declined to give the number of calls or emails, but said the BSA was receiving feedback, not taking a poll.

Read the full Texas Values letter, as well as the list of signers, below.

Continue reading “GOP lawmakers sign letter opposing BSA policy change; prayer rally set” »

—  Anna Waugh

WATCH: Gay Scouts, leaders deliver petitions to BSA headquarters

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Jennifer Tyrrell speaks about having to leave her position with the Boy Scouts like other parents who are gay. (Anna Waugh/Dallas Voice)

Below is a video from today’s delivery of four Change.org petitions started by gay Scouts to the BSA’s Irving headquarters.

Former den mother Jennifer Tyrrell and assistant Scoutmaster Greg Bourke spoke about their leadership experiences in the Boy Scouts and the hardship of having to step down from their positions because of their sexual orientation.

Perhaps the most powerful speech was given by Eric Andresen, the father of a gay Scout who was denied his Eagle Scout Award after coming out. Andresen spoke about how painful it is to be a parent and watch your son be denied an award he had worked for over several years only to see him not receive it because of the Scouts’ gay ban.

Watch it below.

Continue reading “WATCH: Gay Scouts, leaders deliver petitions to BSA headquarters” »

—  Anna Waugh

BREAKING: Gay Scouts, leaders deliver petitions

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Gay Scouts and leaders deliver boxes with 1.4 million signatures from combined Change.org petitions requesting the Boy Scouts end its national no-gays ban on Feb. 4. BSA’s Board of Directors is scheduled to vote on a policy change Feb. 6. (Anna Waugh/Dallas Voice)

Gay Scouts and leaders deliver boxes with 1.4 million signatures from combined Change.org petitions requesting the Boy Scouts end its national no-gays ban on Monday. BSA’s Board of Directors is scheduled to vote on a policy change Feb. 6. (Anna Waugh/Dallas Voice)

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCE

DAVID TAFFET  |  Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com

While the Boy Scouts Board of Directors met in Irving on Monday morning, four Scout leaders from across the country converged on BSA headquarters to deliver 1.4 million petition signatures urging the group to lift its ban on gay Scouts and leaders.

A representative from BSA was scheduled to meet with the group sometime Monday morning. When no representative appeared by 12:30 p.m., the Scouts placed the boxes of signatures at the base of the Scouting statute near the front door of BSA headquarters. A representative later came out and picked up the signatures after most members of the media had left.

Mark Anthony Dingbaum, organizing manager from Change.org, called the campaigns that resulted in 1.4 million signatures among his organization’s most successful.

“Behind all successful campaigns are powerful personal stories,” he said before introducing the Scouting leaders.

Jennifer Tyrrell, the Cub Scout mom who delivered 300,000 signatures to the Boy Scouts in July asking to be reinstated as a den mother, said she was back under much better circumstances. She recounted the day she was dismissed from the Scouts.

“We were working on a conservation project for a state park the day I was removed,” she said. “The letter said I did not meet the high standards of the Boy Scouts of America.”

Greg Bourke was an assistant Scoutmaster who was removed after serving for 10 years. He has been partnered for 30 years and has two children involved in Scouting. His partner and children were in Dallas with him.

He said last year after telling his council he is gay, he was asked to resign immediately. He has received overwhelming support from his troop, other Scout parents and even the Catholic church that sponsors his troop.

“In the name of fairness, in the name of equality, in the name of God, I ask the Executive Board to please end this harmful discrimination now,” he said.

Will Oliver, 20, is a gay Eagle Scout who began a petition on Change.org asking National Geographic channel to to condemn the Boy Scouts discrimination policy. Are You Tougher Than a Boy Scout? is scheduled to air on the National Geographic channel in March.

Oliver, who is from Massachusetts and remains in good standing with the Scouts, said one of the values Scouting taught him is not to stand by passively in the face of injustice.

“Discrimination doesn’t happen in my troop,” he said. “My council has a nondiscrimination policy.”

He said sexual orientation really doesn’t have a place in scouting and called the Scouts his refuge from the pressure of dating that he felt in school and elsewhere.

Oliver is in school at Northwestern University and met his mother and two of his brothers in Dallas. He said he was missing a test today at school but his professor, who had also been a Scout, encouraged him to make the trip and told him he could make up the exam “anytime.”

Eric Andresen represented his son at BSA headquarters. His son was refused his Eagle award after completing the requirements and then coming out.

Andresen said his son did an anti-bullying project in school for his Eagle merit project and called it ironic that the Boy Scouts turned out to be the biggest bullies his son would have to face.

“It hurts to watch what Ryan has had to go through,” he said. “Two years ago he made a big mistake. He was honest.”

The Boy Scouts board is expected to vote on whether to soften their ban on gays on Wednesday.

Brad Hankins, Campaign Director for Scouts for Equality, represented the group in Dallas today. The group was founded by Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout raised by two moms.

Scouts for Equality group is responsible for campaigns last fall that caused several major corporate donors to stop funding the Boy Scouts.

“In seven months, we’ve built an organization comprised of thousands of alumni Eagle Scouts, as well as current Scouts and Scoutmasters, who are all very concerned about the future health of an organization we cherish — the Boy Scouts of America.” said Hankins. “We believe that this policy change must be enacted as a mitigated solution toward the final goal of ending discrimination throughout all of Scouting, lest the program be isolated on the fringe of our society. As America embraces universal equality, so should the Boy Scouts of America.”

Several community members were at Boy Scout headquarters to greet the Scouts who had come to Dallas for the delivery of petitions.

Mark “Major” Jiminez, who was arrested twice at Dallas County Records Building when he tried to obtain a marriage license with his husband, was surprised the Boy Scouts were considering a change in policy so soon after announcing the results of a two-year study last summer. Without releasing any details of the study, the Scouts said they’d concluded they needed to maintain the current ban on gays.

“I never expected to see this in my life,” Jiminez said. “I thought they’d close their doors first.”

More photos below.

—  David Taffet

Boys Scouts to discuss ending gay ban

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Ousted lesbian den leader Jennifer Tyrrell delivers petitions calling for an end to the Boy Scouts’ gay ban at the group’s headquarters in Irving in July. (Anna Waugh/Dallas Voice)

The Boy Scouts of America may end its anti-gay ban as early as next week.

The Board of Directors will discuss removing the anti-gay language from the national organization’s rules at its meeting next week, allowing local chapters to decide whether to allow gay members or Scout leaders.

In recent months, UPS, Intel and Merck have pulled their funding of the organization because of the discrimination.

A BSA official told NBC News that more companies had threatened to pull funding if the ban was not lifted.

BSA spokesman Deron Smith released a statement about the policy change.

“Currently, the BSA is discussing potentially removing the national membership restriction regarding sexual orientation,” the statement reads in part. “This would mean there would no longer be any national policy regarding sexual orientation, and the chartered organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting would accept membership and select leaders consistent with each organization’s mission, principles, or religious beliefs. BSA members and parents would be able to choose a local unit that best meets the needs of their families.”

In July, ousted Cub Scout mom Jennifer Tyrrell brought her Change.org petition to the Irving headquarters. Days before BSA officials said a two-year examination of the anti-gay policy found that the ban was in the best interest of the organization.

Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation released a statement praising the discussion and calling for a change in policy.

“The Boy Scouts of America have heard from scouts, corporations and millions of Americans that discriminating against gay scouts and scout leaders is wrong,” said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. “Scouting is a valuable institution and this change will only strengthen its core principles of fairness and respect.”

Read the full release below.

Continue reading “Boys Scouts to discuss ending gay ban” »

—  Anna Waugh