Video: Teenager gets kicked out of Boy Scouts for being gay
Amatuer, obscured video footage, appears to show a gay teenager being forced out of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) after coming out as gay.
The video is part of Ryan James Yezak’s upcoming gay-rights documentary ‘Second Class Citizens’. It shows 19-year-old Eric Jones talking to the director of a summer camp in Missouri about his sexuality.
The official said: “As far as I’m concerned, your lifestyle is your lifestyle. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the way I look at an individual or the way I judge them. However, by telling me what you just told me, it automatically takes you out of the program … I really have no choice now.”
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is currently sitting in a two-day meeting, of 1,400 local leaders, in order to consider allowing gay members into the organisation.
A proposed change would allow individual scouting troops on whether to allow gay members, however would leave in place the ban on gay adult volunteers and staff.
Officials at the meeting will begin opening ballots on Wednesday, to allow the vote to take place on the proposed change.
The final vote is scheduled to take place today in Dallas-Fort Worth, Grapevine.
The UK Scouting movement is inclusive of LGBT people. The ban on LGBT people is only upheld by the Boy Scouts of America.
