IRVING (CBSDFW.COM) – Just as leaders with the Boy
Scouts of America sit down for meetings in Irving, to discuss removing
the national membership restriction on sexual orientation, gay scouts and leaders will deliver signed petitions supporting an end to the ban.
The National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America are
considering whether or not to allow local Scout councils to determine
for themselves if gay Scouts and gay leaders should be allowed in their
groups.
Last summer Jen
Tyrrell, a mother from Ohio, and former local Cub Scout den mother,
delivered some 300,000 signatures attached to a petition campaign, calling for her reinstatement, and an end to BSA no-gays policy.
On Monday, Tyrrell and three other adults with ties to the Scouts
will deliver 1.4 million signatures, gathered on Change.org petitions,
to Boy Scouts national headquarters. All of the petition signatures urge
the end of a national anti-gay policy.
"While an end to the ban will strengthen scouting and stop the harm
it caused to so many young gay people, the campaign for change will
continue until the national policy is one where every young gay person
is allowed to participate," Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation (GLAAD) President Herndon Graddick said in a press release
statement.
Over the weekend
Governor Rick Perry, a former Eagle Scout, addressed hundreds of Scouts
in the state House of Representatives in Austin where he spoke
against softening the no-gays membership policy. "I think most people
see absolutely no reason to change the position and neither do I," he
said.
Those who support lifting the ban however say a Scout's sexual
orientation shouldn't be the measure of their dedication the
organization.
If the nation wide ban were lifted it would leave it up to individual scout groups to determine if they want to follow suit.
If the nation wide ban were lifted it would leave it up to individual
scout groups to determine if they want to allow gay scouts or
scoutmasters in. Scout officials say that would leave members and
parents able to choose a local unit that best meets the needs of their
families.
