Jennifer Tyrrell, together with GLAAD and Scouts For Equality, is launching a new petition to urge the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to completely lift its anti-gay ban on both youth members and adult employees and volunteers.
Help end the ban on gay leadership and troops in the Boy Scouts.
This is it.
My name is Jennifer Tyrrell. I am a devoted partner, mother, friend and community leader in Bridgeport, Ohio. I’m also a former Tiger Cub den leader with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). In April 2012, I was removed from this volunteer position, and my membership was revoked after nearly a year of service -– just because I happen to be gay. Since then, I've been working with GLAAD and fellow Scouts to help end the Boy Scouts' anti-gay policy and inspire millions to sign Change.org petitions calling for a national non-discrimination policy.
No parent should ever have to look their children in the eyes and tell them their family isn't good enough. But the Boy Scouts' current proposal forces gay parents and adult leaders to do just that.
On May 22 - 24, the Boy Scouts of America's National Council will vote on a resolution that will allow gay youth to participate in the organization, but will maintain its ban on gay parents like me. I'm urging the Boy Scouts to consider another resolution which would end the ban on both gay youth and parents and allow me to continue Scouting with my son, Cruz.
The Record’s Alfred Doblin put it best when he said “Imagine a youth organization announcing it will allow blacks as members, but will not hire any black leaders. Imagine a youth organization announcing it will allow Jews to become members, but will not hire any Jewish leaders. Now substitute blacks and Jews for gays. You have the Boy Scouts of America.”
The Boy Scouts can do better than that. Our children deserve better than that.
Please join me and my family in urging the Boy Scouts to consider another resolution this May, and vote to end the ban on both gay youth and parents. It's time to end discrimination in Scouting.
GLAAD first started calls for the Boy Scouts of America to end its ban on gay scouts and scout leaders in April 2012 after Jennifer Tyrrell, a mom and den leader from Ohio was removed from her 7-year-old’s Cub Scout Pack for being gay. Tyrrell’s Change.org petition has attracted more than 330,000 signatures in support of ending the Boy Scouts’ ban on gay Scouts and leaders.
More than 1 million people have joined Change.org petition campaigns since Tyrrell launched her first petition. Since that day, advocacy efforts and successful petition campaigns have recruited two Boy Scout board members -- AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and Ernst & Young CEO James Turley -- to denounce the national anti-gay policy. GLAAD, together with Eagle Scout and founder of Scouts for Equality Zach Wahls, have also used Change.org petitions to pressure corporate donors such as Intel and UPS to pull funding until the Boy Scouts end their policy banning gay youth and parents. Last fall, a Bay Area mother named Karen Andresen petitioned her local Boy Scout council to honor her son Ryan with an Eagle Award that was denied to him when the Scout came out as gay. An official Eagle Board Board of Review unanimously approved Ryan's application for Eagle, but a Boy Scout executive ultimately rejected his application.
