Md. Teen Among First Openly Gay Scouts to Achieve Top Rank After Ban Lift

A 17-year-old Maryland boy has become one of the first openly gay Boy Scouts to achieve the Boy Scouts of America's highest rank since the organization reversed its ban on gay youth nearly six weeks ago.

Pascal Tessier, who publicly voiced his opposition to the ban on gay members, started with the group a decade ago as a Cub Scout and earned 21 merit badges before being named an Eagle Scout on Monday, said his father, Oliver Tessier, a consultant in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

In a Dec. 2013 interview with NBC4, Tessier called the policy change bittersweet. Once he turns 18, he can no longer participate in scouting activities as an openly gay man. He told News4’s Chris Gordon that he will continue to fight for equality.

“I want to see adults be able to say, ‘I am openly gay and want to teach them how to become leaders’,” he said.

“On my 18th birthday, I’m planning on applying to be an adult leader for the Boy Scouts so that we push the issue,’’ he said.

Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout who has gay parents and formed the group Scouts for Equality, compared Tessier’s experience with University of Missouri football player Michael Sam, who came out publicly before the NFL draft.

“This is about showing people that you can be honest about who you are and setting that example and showing that’s OK,’’ he said. “That’s what Pascal is doing.’’

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Gay-Teen-Achieves-Eagle-Scout-Milestone-in-Md-244883381.html

Just to be clear, the results you’ve posted relate to the membership policy that was in effect before National conspired and conducted the National conference to essentially overturn the wishes of the 61% who wanted to retain the ban on open homosexuality in scouting.

A very sordid affair...our Council would not name our delegates so we could not petition them with our positions...they were kept incognito and voted to change the policy.

To date, not one representative has been made available to begin the process of explaining how to implement the new policy.

They refuse to answer any phone calls, emails or letters relating to the topic unless you’re kissing their a$$.

They will not clarify the “sexual preference or orientation” statement...meaning that if a genetic female has a “preference” to be male, or a male that wants to be female. It’s not like we can perform a “visual” check...

But for me, the complete loss of confidence in National, Region and Council were the final straw. They wouldn’t let the original survey results stand...they conspired with the mormons in SLC to gain their approval for the change and then essentially stacked the deck at the conference.

Hey BSA, spit!

Despicable, but not surprising...the politics I’ve witnessed and heard of at the Council level must pale in comparison to what goes on at National...

I was going to do a slow fade out...son makes Eagle, ages out, kinda ease out of the Troop and help around the District and possibly the Council level for a few years and then just ride off into the sunset.

This action and the politics behind it, the methods used to enact it, plus some other stuff all combined to change my mind about that.

Once I get through with the Philmont trek this summer, I’m cutting all ties with Scouting...I committed to that long before so I won’t “punish” the boys by backing out.

I’ve even told my DE not to bother me with any fundraising requests the day after the “decision” was announced...we had over a dozen long time Scouters quit the day it was announced.

I’m just surprised that many Scouters, who portend to hold to and believe in the Scout Oath and Law, are willing enablers of the current methods at National that are in direct conflict with the Oath and Law. That they aren’t willing to stick to the principles of the Law and resign.

Then they have the temerity to scold those of us who do...

66 So the pro-gay change in policy was driven, not by "scouters" (I suppose this means scout leaders?) not by parents nor by most donors, but principly by the ultra-capitalist Fortune-50 donors? Is that approx. it?

"Scouters" is a term principally applied to all adult volunteer leaders from the unit level up to district/council/region/national levels. Those employed by BSA are generally referred to as the "professionals."

Yes, you got it. Fortune 500 is who drove this within the BSA. The most visible guilty culprits were ...

National President - Wayne Perry, a Mormon and co-owner of the MLB's Seattel Mariners
National Commissioner - Hector Perez, attorney and owner of a consulting firm
Past National President - Rex Tillerson, CEO Exxon/Mobil
National Executive Committee member - Randall Stephenson, CEO AT&T
National Executive Committee member - James Turley, CEO Ernst & Young

And they did this even though it would drive out an additional hundred thousand scouts, in a movement already in decades-long decline? Why??

Basically the BSA has been under siege by homosexualists since ~1990. BSA has been facing increasing pressure from school systems which will not let them recruit in public schools unless BSA accepts open homosexuals. United Way chapters across the nation have been de-funding local BSA councils because of the ban on homosexuals. UW has been a major source of local councils' budgets for a long time. The Human Rights Campaign has successfully penetrated Fortune 500 personnel (Human Resources) departments with the result that Fortune 500 has now adopted the homosexual agenda.

How did the gays, 2% of the population, exert this much pressure on Fortune 500 donors?

1980 - The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) was founded. It is the largest LGBTQ equality-rights advocacy group and political lobbying organization in the U.S.

2002 – The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) published its 1st Corporate Equality Index. It is a tool to rate American businesses on their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors. The Corporate Equality Index chooses companies to rank, and rates them on a scale of 0 to 100 based on flexible criteria grounded in the "10 principles" of the Equality Project. These include ...

 A written policy of nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
 Inclusion of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in its diversity and sensitivity training.
 Parity in domestic partner benefits required by certain laws like the Family and Medical Leave Act.
 Appropriate and respectful advertising to the LGBT community.
 Transgender-inclusive health insurance benefits.
 Rejection of any activities that would undermine the goal of equal rights for LGBT people.

Many companies are pressured to change policies that have earned them a poor score on the index, due to bad press. This has led to a competitive atmosphere among businesses to stay current in the latest LGBT-related inclusive policies. Larger corporations are much more likely to change LGBT-related policies as a result of the index than small or medium companies are. The Human Rights Campaign focuses on larger companies in the CEI, so smaller businesses are subject to little public backlash due to the efforts of the Human Rights Campaign and the index.

The 2012 HRC CEI report rated 636 companies of which 190 scored 100 %. Eighty-eight of the Fortune 500 companies received perfect scores - which was even more rigorous this time around because the top rating required employers to extend health insurance coverage without exclusions to transgender employees. The 1 glaring exception to this trend remained Irving(TX)-based ExxonMobil. It was the only company to get a negative rating in the index, out of 636 that were scored, including all those on the Fortune 500 list. By comparison, half of the companies in the top 20 of the Fortune 500 list received perfect scores, Chevron among them. AT&T and Ernst&Young also have perfect CEI records.

5/29/2013 – For the 14th straight year, ExxonMobil shareholders overwhelmingly rejected by 81% a proposition to incorporate into the company’s written non-discrimination policy language explicitly prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The ExxonMobil Board of Directors, in a proxy statement, recommended that shareholders vote against the proposal.

9/27/2013 – Exxon Mobil Corp. announced that it would begin offering benefits to legally married same-sex couples in the U.S. for the 1st time starting next week. The company said it would recognize "all legal marriages" when it determines eligibility for health care plans for the company's 77,000 employees and retirees in the U.S. That means if a homosexual employee has been married in a state or country where homosexual marriage is legal, his or her spouse will be eligible for benefits with Exxon in the U.S. as of 10/01/2013. Exxon, which is facing a same-sex discrimination complaint in Illinois, said it was following the lead of the U.S. government.

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