Support for teen Ryan Andresen, who was denied his Eagle Scout Award and subsequently kicked out of the Scouts because he was gay, includes an online petition with 350,000 signatures and, soon, an appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show.
Reuters reports that Ryan will stop by Ellen this week to discuss his trials and tribulations with the Boy Scouts of America.
Andresen has been working towards becoming an Eagle Scout since he was six, though he will be ineligible when he turns 18 next week. He came out publicly in July in a mass letter to the troop in an attempt to stand up for a fellow scout who was being bullied.
Having been a victim of bullying himself, Ryan created a “Tolerance Wall” comprising of 288 tiles with messages of encouragement and acceptance at Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School, where he attended sixth to eight grade.
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Joaquin Moraga’s principal, Joan Danilson, told the San Jose Mercury News that Ryan “had a hard time with bullying” while there and “wanted to come back and give that message of tolerance.” Ryan’s mother, Karen, said that his troop bullied him over the project, which was intended to earn him his Eagle Scout Award.
However, the Scoutmaster refused to sign the official paperwork. “His last words were ‘I’d rather resign than sign,'” said Karen Andresen. Then last week, Ryan was informed that he was no longer a Scout since he “does not agree to Scouting’s principle of ‘Duty to God’ and does not meet Scouting’s membership standard on sexual orientation.”
Karen Andresen claimed Ryan “never said that he does not believe in a higher power.”
Mjl-428
they’ll let pedophiles roam free but punish a boy for doing something that’s supposed to a part of their values. not surprising or shocking at all
Dumdum
@Mjl-428: Just to be clear here there is a 10 to 1 ratio of male to female occurrences of child molestation. You imply by your comment that pedophiles are perhaps Gay by posting here and not being specific. The Boy Scouts is a Christian organization and as such shall remain a beacon of stupidity and intolerance behaving like ALL Christians in a way that is contrary to those beliefs that they claim to hold so dear, like love , compassion, tolerance, not judging others and all that other crap that their precious Jesus who may or may not have existed was supposed to have said.
tdx3fan
@Dumdum: Not ALL Christians are raving lunatic asshats. There are plenty of Christians that do hold close to those beliefs. There are plenty of Christians that would rather go to a gay pride rally to offer support than go to listen to anything put out by the various hate groups.
However, the truth about the scouts hating gays has been out for at least 20+ years (longer than this kid has even been alive). I have to wonder why he feels that being an Eagle Scout is such an accomplishment when it basically means you are the highest achieved homophobic douche in a group of homophobic douches.
yaoming
signed it
yaoming
Did anyone see this in the news last week?
KING 5 (Seattle) Investigators have obtained secret files once locked up inside one of the country’s most trusted youth organizations: the Boy Scouts of America.
Since 1919 the Scouts have been compiling files on Scout leaders-scoutmasters, assistant scoutmasters and other volunteers from across the country-accused of sexually abusing children; many of whom were young scouts in their troops. The files number in the thousands…
Dumdum
@tdx3fan: I guess the haters get all the press. Shall I tell you about my first boyfriend Mathew, a beautiful sensitive brilliant artist who hung himself from a tree in his backyard because his pentecostal parents had convinced him that god would destroy him for being Gay. I don’t care about the so called good Christians it is the bad ones that worry me. Their are plenty of amazing people in this world who have not embraced religion.
GreatGatsby2011
I was kicked out of the scouts nearly two decades ago for being an atheist. I didn’t get to go on a talk show. I feel cheated.
Mjl-428
@Dumdum: maybe I should’ve been more specific and detailed.
by their Christian values, which they do not live by, gays and atheists are deemed horrible and must be treated as such.
but what is even more horrible i.e. pedophiles, are roaming through out their organization, yet they don’t really do anything about it