Change.org

After more than a week of reports that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) might consider lifting their national ban on gay Scouts and leaders, the organization’s Board of Directors decided in a closed door meeting today to form a task force to study the issue, and will in the interim keep their discriminatory policy on the books -- preventing openly gay Scouts and Scout leaders from serving openly in the organization.

Yesterday, 18 year-old Ryan Andresen and his family celebrated that he was one step closer to getting his Eagle award after an official Eagle Board of Review unanimously approved Ryan's Eagle application. But Ryan's victory was short-lived, as Fenoglio, a paid employee of the BSA, reversed course and rejected the board's unanimously approved application -- an unprecedented action.

A new petition campaign on Change.org with more than 2,000 signatures is urging the Boy Scouts' Kentucky-based Lincoln Heritage Council to reject the national organization's discriminatory ban on gay scouts and leaders, and to reinstate a local gay Boy Scouts leader.

As pressure grows for the Boy Scouts to end their ban on gay scouts and leaders, a spokesperson for President Obama announced that the President opposes the Boy Scouts of America's policy of discrimination, joining Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Following a secret committee's vote to keep the Boy Scouts' anti-gay ban, Eagle Scout Zach Wahls has launched a petition urging the Boy Scouts to allow its board members to vote to end the ban.