When Ryan Andresen completed a 288-tile wall of tolerance at Joaquin Moraga Middle School in Moraga last month, he thought he had met the requirements to become an Eagle Scout.
But, according to his mother, the scoutmaster of Ryan's Moraga Boy Scout troop is refusing to sign off on the project because Ryan is gay.
"We are all just in shock," said Ryan's mother, Karen Andresen.
How is the Novato Scouting community reacting to this? In a more general sense, have decisions by the national Scouts leadership done anything to hurt scouting on a local level? Are local scout troops thriving or dwindling?
The Moraga family has a petition drawing international attention on Change.org urging the leaders of the local troop to reject the Boy Scouts of America's "discriminatory anti-gay policy" and give Ryan Andresen the Eagle award. Ryan is a senior at Maybeck High School in Berkeley.
"It hurts me so much to watch Ryan suffer for being who he is, because to me, he's perfect," Karen Andresen said.
Ryan's father, Eric Andresen, used to do the bookkeeping for Troop 212. He resigned on Tuesday, Karen Andresen said, after Scoutmaster Rainer del Valle reaffirmed his refusal to sign off on Ryan's project.
Ryan's 18th birthday is Oct. 8. The Boy Scouts have a rule that the Eagle Scout project must be approved by the 18th birthday, Karen Andresen said.
She said that Ryan came out to his family two years ago. The idea for the wall of tolerance was a result of the bullying he experienced at school and in the Boy Scouts.
Ryan Andresen hopes to attend the University of San Francisco.
"Many troops around the country are standing up, choosing to reject the Boy Scouts' discriminatory policy," the petition statement by Karen Andresen reads. "I sincerely hope that Ryan's troop — Troop 212 — will become one of them."
The Boy Scouts of America has policies that prohibit "open or avowed" homosexual people from membership in its Scouting program, as well as atheists and agnostics, according to Wikipedia.
One petition signer from overseas wrote on Change.org said he signed "because I am a member of the Boy Scouts in the UK and discrimination is the very thing we are taught against! Scouts are supposed to HONOUR people with ALL their differences. Not treat them like filth."
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The constitution protects you, me and Ryan. Ryan's parents can hire lawyers and sue, and run it all the way up the flag pole to the Supreme Court again in legal challenges. I have attached a summary of the ruling below for your input.
The BSA policy is: “While the BSA does not proactively inquire about the sexual orientation of employees, volunteers, or members, we do not grant membership to individuals who are open or avowed homosexuals or who engage in behavior that would become a distraction to the mission of the BSA.” Scouting believes same-sex attraction should be introduced and discussed outside of its program with parents, caregivers, or spiritual advisers, at the appropriate time and in the right setting. The vast majority of parents we serve value this right and do not sign their children up for Scouting for it to introduce or discuss, in any way, these topics. The BSA is a voluntary, private organization that sets policies that are best for the organization. The BSA welcomes all who share its beliefs but does not criticize or condemn those who wish to follow a different path.[34]
"Recently, a Scout proactively notified his unit leadership and Eagle Scout counselor that he does not agree to Scouting's principle of 'Duty to God,' and does not meet Scouting's membership standard on sexual orientation," the statement reads. "While the Boy Scouts of America did not proactively ask for this information, based on his statements and after discussion with his family, he is being informed that he is no longer eligible for membership in Scouting."
"Recently, a Scout proactively notified his unit leadership and Eagle Scout counselor that he does not agree to Scouting's principle of 'Duty to God,' and does not meet Scouting's membership standard on sexual orientation," the statement reads. "While the Boy Scouts of America did not proactively ask for this information, based on his statements and after discussion with his family, he is being informed that he is no longer eligible for membership in Scouting."
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, orof the press; or the right of th people peacebly to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. The "Hate" coming from the left here has no constitutional grounds. People like Claire scare me...Are you ready to round up the conservatives and put them in camps? Government Power in the hands of one party like the liberal democrats in California leads to tryanical views. Liberty...respect peoples differences....please accept that there are conservatives who make up 25% of Marin County....we are a minority and we have rights just like every other protected class.
The reason a unanimous vote is required by the boys in Ryan's scouting troop is because Ryan is the one who has jeopardized his membership when he outed himself. If the other boys are not comfortable with that, then he's the one who has to leave. I'll repeat… rules are rules and organizations have a right to discriminate. He is the one who is asking for the rules to be broken and it should not cause any grief for his fellow scouts. BTW - Conservatives DO NOT hate gays and YES, they too have children who are openly gay. Did you somehow miss the fact that Dick Chaney's daughter is a lesbian? Talk about being in the closet - you should get out more often.
If Dick Cheney was so open to support gays, why didn't he ever mention it when he should have? In a statement he said that if he would have revealed he was in favor of gay marriage during the 2000 campaign, it would have sank the GOP campaign. So he too had to lie and he chose to do just that. He also stated that the reason he did not attend his daughter's wedding was because he wanted to 'avoid the media circus' - what a joke! Maybe you should go out a little more often, but not only in your little town, at least try to make it as far as San Francisco.
Life has it's ups and downs and I've had many gay friends and acquaintances who have seen vast improvements in their quality of lives and their acceptance by peers, workplaces and families. This is a good thing and we all hope it will continue to improve. What I do suggest is that we all realize how lucky we are to be American's. We can argue and debate these issues without dire consequences. Just imagine what Ryan would face in other parts of the world. Let's all pray for Malala Yousufzai, the 14 year old Pakistani teenager who was shot by the Taliban. They want her dead for simply wanting an education. I think this puts our troubles into perspective. And Claire, I'm willing to bet that you and I have far more in common, than not.
Sadly you are right in that in other parts of the world it would be even more difficult for Ryan and Malala, but in the meantime we live here and we need to do the best we can to accept each other's differences and to just let people live their lives without discriminating. It is about time that the quality of life is getting better for the LGBT community, because despite what some people believe, it has always been here, except nobody spoke about it. In the last 10 years things have changed dramatically and that is a good thing. When even people like Cheney can finally find the compassion to stand up and do the right thing, we are making progress, even though I realize he only did it because his own child was concerned and he could no longer keep it quiet. When I hear that young people like Ryan commit suicide because they are bullied, sad and desperate and find no other way out, I strongly believe we have to do everything we can to be compassionate human beings instead of casting stones, particularly an organization like the BSA, since they hold themselves to such 'high' moral standards. As I said earlier, it shouldn't have to do with being liberal or conservative, but simply with compassion and acting like human beings.
http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2012/10/12/moraga-gay-boy-scout-on-ellen/
Please respect the Constitution of the United States...again the liberals have no regard for private property or the right to bear arms, no understanding of the first admendment. And wiil allow freedom of speech only when it serves their purpose. Schools are doing plenty with bill SB48 sponsored by Leno to promote the liberal gay agenda. The gay agenda is alive and well in soical studies and parents can't even opt out on moral or religious grounds! Leno is the gay "Bully" for forcing this on us. More on SB48 indoctrination policy....this is just like Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia! Even if I was gay....I would be against this based on consitutional grounds. Critics say SB 48 hijacks history class to promote a gay agenda. "In the past, history taught about what people did, what they accomplished," says Brad Dacus, head of the Pacific Justice Institute. "It didn't focus on their sexuality and what they did in the bedroom. Yet that is what this legislation will impose on every public school in the state of California dealing with heterosexuality, homosexual role models, transgender role models, all the way down to the kindergarten level." Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07/14/calif-gov-signs-landmark-law-to-teach-gay-history/#ixzz29P2DkNG7 Why don't you pracitce some tolerance and take a law class to understand how the constitution works. Link below: http://constitution.hillsdale.edu/ God Bless!
http://www.pacificjustice.org/uploads/1/3/1/7/13178056/excuse_of_pupil_for_objectionable_education.pdf
A: They train the child since birth to be so ashamed that it isn't until some point in adulthood that biology and truth are able, through much pain, to break through and allow the person to live an honest life of love and happiness. Biology is so...inconvenient that they choose to instead describe it as a, "lifestyle choice", and a very shameful one at that. The entire system rewards belief in things which can not be substantiated with fact; so much so that the more outrageous the claim, the higher the piousness of the believer.
Not all history is white, male, euro-christian history here in America. But all of it needs to be told, in addition to the white male european Christian history. Including the stories of people in the old west like Charley Parker, or how the Nazis burned the Hirschfeld Institute in Berlin because it dared to record LGBT history.
IMHO the discussion of sexual preference does not belong ANYWHERE in the program. The program should always continue to focus on strong youth development. I'd rather these boys are in organized positive community focused programs than home playing video games or running around town unsupervised - we all see those stories in the patch police logs... Let's put this into prospective, folks. National BSA is the rule maker and they are out in Texas. That's where to focus your political agendas - not outside stores with little kids learning to communication skills by asking for support by selling their pop corn. Supporting our local youth does not mean you support that jerk in Moraga. Pulling funding from our kids selling popcorn just hurts us locally...if that's your intent, than by all means, go bully those little kids. I do not condone what that man did - I can't even call him a leader - his behavior is so disappointing to me...but please, do not take it out on our kids here in Novato. They have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with what that jerk did.