Lawmakers ask Boy Scouts to end anti-gay practices

By Ruth Schneider, 365gay.com

Cate and Elizabeth Wirth only wanted to volunteer with Boy Scouts and participate in the organization with their 10-year-old.


But things didn’t work out as planned or hoped. The Wirths were rejected as volunteers for their son’s troop. An official suggested the lesbian couple would “push their lifestyle on the boys.”

The string of events caught the attention of lawmakers. On Monday, 26 members of Congress wrote to Boys Scouts of America asking them to end their discriminatory practices.

U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman, a New York Democrat and co-signer of the letter, said the Boy Scouts’ policies must change.

“I’ll always be a proud Eagle Scout, but this discriminatory policy must end,” said Ackerman in a news release. “Rejecting a Cub Scout’s mothers from volunteering just because of their sexual orientation doesn’t comply with the Scout law I recited at Scout meetings.”

The letter addressed to Robert Mazzuca, chief scout executive, notes how Boy Scout laws contradict the organization’s practices.

The letter states: “According to Scout law, ‘A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.’ We fail to see how it is friendly, courteous, or kind to bar loving parents from volunteering for their child’s Cub Scout pack just because of who they love. Furthermore, it is difficult to imagine how singling out the parents of one Scout for exclusion is an example of Scout loyalty.”

*365Gay.com