Boy Scouts Receive 1.4 Million Signatures Urging End to Discrimination

After initially being rebuffed by security, ousted Boy Scout mom Jennifer Tyrrell, gay Eagle Scout Will Oliver, gay former Scoutmaster Greg Bourke, and Eric Andresen, father of a gay Scout denied his Eagle Award, were able to deliver the more than 1.4 million signatures gathered on behalf of ending the Boy Scouts' ban on gay scouts and leaders.

The national leaders of the Boy Scouts of America are gathered this week for to discuss an end to the organization’s discriminatory ban.

Tell the Boy Scouts to end the policy now! 

“Today, I’m helping deliver more than 1.4 million Change.org petition signatures to the Boy Scouts of America, urging the national board to end ban on gay youth and parents, and give me the opportunity to once again serve my son’s Cub Scout Pack,” said Tyrrell, who launched her Change.org petition in April 2012 with support from GLAAD. “I do not want one more mother or father to have to look their child in the eyes and tell them that their parents aren’t good enough - or are different. The Boy Scouts of America can do better than that.”

Bourke, whose partner and children traveled to Dallas with him to deliver signatures from his petition, said that even though he had the backing of his community, the Boy Scouts of America still fired him from his Assistant Scoutmaster position because of his sexual orientation.

“After being forced to resign, I received unanimous support from the Boy Scouts in my Troop, the other Troop adult Leaders, the Troop Committee, my pastor and everyone at my church,” Bourke said. “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.”

Andresen, whose son Ryan fulfilled all his requirements for his Eagle Scout award but was told he couldn’t receive it because of his sexual orientation, said that it pains him to see the suffering the Boy Scouts’ anti-gay policy has caused his son.

“I want to tell the BSA that my son Ryan is not inferior and that no parent should ever have to go through delivering devastating news like I had to deliver to my son,” Andresen said, delivering nearly half a million signatures from his family’s petition. “I pray that the BSA national board starts to understand this, and acts quickly to make the incredible Scouting journey open to all young men across America.”

Oliver, a gay Eagle Scout who launched a petition calling on the National Geographic Channel, a strategic partner of the Boy Scouts of America, to condemn the organization’s anti-gay policy, said that a Scout should be judged on their trustworthiness, bravery, and kindness, and not on their sexual orientation.

“The Boy Scouts of America’s exclusionary policy fails to reflect the values I learned in Scouting,” said Oliver, who traveled to Dallas with his two brothers, also Eagle Scouts. “You do not learn discrimination in the Boy Scouts, yet every day gay Scouts and scout leaders are continually told that they don’t belong in this organization.”

After speaking outside of the Boy Scouts of America’s headquarters today, Tyrrell, Bourke, Andresen, and Oliver hand-delivered the petition signatures to a representative of the Boy Scouts of America.

“Today’s delivery marks one final push by the more than 1.4 million signers who’ve taken action on Change.org demanding an end to the Boy Scout’s national ban on gay youth and parents,” said Mark Anthony Dingbaum, senior campaign manager at Change.org. “Through cutting-edge technology and powerful storytelling, Jennifer, Greg, Eric, and Will mobilized millions, and stand at an historic moment where their work could undo years of discrimination.”

“The Boy Scouts of America have heard from scouts, corporations and millions of Americans that banning gay scouts and scout leaders is wrong,” said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. “The BSA will continue to hear from these advocates until discrimination against dedicated gay scouts is a thing of the past. Scouting is a valuable institution and this change will only strengthen its core principles of fairness and respect.”

Tell the Boy Scouts to end the policy now!