A California chapter of Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has challenged BSA national policy by recommending an openly gay scout receive his Eagle Scout honor.
Ryan Andresen was denied his award last October because of the fact that he was gay and BSA national policy prohibits the participation of gay Scouts.
His mother, Karen Andresen, subsequently started a petition on Change.org which has now collected nearly 500,000 signatures including those of Sen. Barbara Boxer and California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In launching the petition she wrote on the Web site, “It hurts me so much to watch Ryan suffer for being who he is, because to me, he’s perfect. Ryan has worked for nearly 12 years to become an Eagle Scout, and nothing would make him more proud than earning that well-deserved distinction. I hope that if enough people come together, we can convince my son’s troop leaders to help him feel proud of who he is and all he’s accomplished.”
On hearing about the recommendation the Andresens posted a column on the Change.org petition Web site headed “Victory.”
From the posting:
“Despite the Boy Scouts of America’s national anti-gay policy, California-based Mt. Diablo-Silverado Council approved a gay Scouts’ Eagle application after more than 460,000 people joined a mother’s campaign on Change.org. Ryan Andresen, an 18-year-old Boy Scout from the San Francisco area, was granted an Eagle Board of Review after his campaign was featured on Ellen DeGeneres and Anderson Cooper, and supported by U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, and 32 California state legislators. Karen Andresen launched the petition in support of her son Ryan after his Scoutmaster refused to sign off on Ryan’s Eagle application because he’s gay. Karen thanked her petition supporters and celebrated saying “I’m just so incredibly happy for Ryan. He’s worked so hard for this honor, and as a mother, it means the world to me to know that our local Scouting community believes in him, too.”
The BSA national council must still approve the California chapters recommendation.
