The
“Local protesters ask
for Boy Scouts policy change”
Organization accused of exclusion of gays, religious
discrimination
By Michael Hewlett,
Journal Reporter
Matt Hill, a bespectacled
16-year-old dressed in a Boy Scout uniform, stretched his arms high and held up
a pink sign with the words, “I am a gay Boy Scout” scrawled in large black ink.
He stood outside the local
chapter of the Boy Scouts of America at
The Boy Scouts do not allow
openly gay scouts.
Two years ago, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America can bar homosexuals from
becoming troop leaders.
Hill said that two years
ago, he was kicked out of a local Boy Scout troop because he was gay.
“I was given a choice,
either be gay or be a Boy Scout,” Hill said. Being gay, he said, wasn’t a
choice.
Wayne Brown, the assistant
director of the local Boy Scout of American chapter (sic) declined to comment yesterday about the protest.
The silent protest was part
of a national campaign by Scouting For All, which is based in
Gail Davis, who held a
white sign saying, “Atheists support Scouting For All,” accused the Boy Scouts
of America of religious discrimination. Her husband, the Rev. Daniel Charles
Davis, is the pastor of the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship.
Several years ago, national
Boy Scout leaders told the Unitarian-Universalist Association that it had no
authority to give religious emblems to Unitarian-Universalist boys in the Boy Scouts.
She said she also thinks
what happened to Hill was wrong.
“I support Matt,” she said.
Michael Hewlett can be reached at 336-727-7326 or at
mhewlett@wsjournal.com
Transcribed to computer
file: December 9, 2004