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Eagle Scouts Returning Their  Medals In Protest Over BSA's Reaffirmation Of Anti-Gay Policies

Eagle Scout Medal

OAK PARK, IL -- In response to the recent firing of gay scouts and leaders and its refusal to modify its policy regarding gay scouts and leaders, an Oak Park, Illinois man returned his Eagle Scout medal to the Boy Scouts of America organisation.

Rob Breymaier,who serves as the executive director of the Oak Park, Illinois Regional Housing Center, said he wanted to send back his Eagle Scout medal because he has lost hope that the 102-year-old organization would "do the right thing."

"I could always explain away that it was an old policy and that sooner or later, we'll be able to force a vote on the issue," Breymaier told the Chicago Tribune. "But when this vote happened and they reaffirmed the policy, it was just too much. It was infuriating, embarrassing and upsetting."

Eagle Scout is the highest Boy Scout rank achievable. Among its stringent requirements, a Scout must earn 21 merit badges, serve six months in a leadership position and pass a board of review, according to the official BSA website.

Boy Scouts of America officials announced their decision reaffirming the ban on gays July 17 after a two-year evaluation in response to intensified scrutiny.

Jackson Cooper, a former senior patrol leader of the Louisville, Kentucky BSA Troop 342, says in his letter submitted with his Eagle Scout Medal that he thinks the decision has damaged the organization's reputation.

"Most people didn't realize this was the policy and my hope in writing the letter is that enough attention would be drawn, regardless of whether they hold those beliefs personally, the leadership would find those positions untenable just as a matter of public relations," Cooper wrote. He enclosed his Eagle Scout Medal.

Frustrated with BSA's intransigence over the policy, a Pittsfield, Massachusetts man returned his Eagle Scout medal telling a local Boston media outlet that he’d like to see the organisation take a formal poll of its members and determine if a majority really does support the ban on gays.

“I just want a realistic assessment of popular opinion here,” he says. “We are at an important turning point for the Boy Scouts of America. I understand where they’re coming from, but I think that they are lagging historically.”

Chris Baker, an engineer in Minneapolis, said he decided to turn in his badge on Friday after spotting a Facebook post from a fellow scout who did the same.

"I said, 'Let's do this. Let's drown them with returned Eagle Scout medals to show them they are wrong,'" Baker told the New York Daily News. "I was taught that a Boy Scout stands with those being persecuted, and not with the persecutor," he said.

“It was really the defining thing of my childhood,” said Martin Cizmar, now the arts and culture editor at Willamette Week in Portland, Ore. “I’ve taken it with me everywhere that I’ve lived and everywhere I’ve been. It was something that I cherished a lot.”
But last week, after the Boy Scouts of America reaffirmed its exclusion of gays from participating as Scouts or adult leaders, Cizmar returned his medal in protest.
Cizmar explained in his letter, dated July 19, that he is not gay, but he cannot support an organization that excludes gays.

“I can only hope that someone inside the BSA has the courage to fix this policy before the organization withers into irrelevance,” Cizmar wrote. “I don’t want to be an Eagle Scout if a young man who is gay can’t be one, too. Gentlemen, please do the right thing.”

Recently, BSA officials in California fired an openly gay man from his job as a merit badge instructor, claiming that he failed to adhere to uniform requirements and standards for appropriate dress for the summer camp, Camp Winton, located in Amador County, Calif.

Timothy Griffin, a 22-year-old Eagle Scout and an eight-year veteran of camp’s seasonal staff said he was crushed by the firing, and that he thinks “the reaffirmation” of the Boy Scouts policy against gay scouts “played a role in my termination.”

A spokesman for BSA, Deron Smith said five Eagle Scouts had returned their medals in protest of the policy as of this past Friday. He reiterated the group's position that the majority of members agree with the ban.

"Scouting represents millions of youth and adult members in diverse communities across the nation, each with a variety of beliefs," Smith said. 

"Although we are disappointed to learn of anyone who feels compelled to return his Eagle rank, we fully understand and appreciate that not everyone will agree with any one position or policy."

Eagle Scout Zach Wahls, an LGBT advocate who was raised by same-sex parents and is now co-founder of Scouts for Equality, told LGBTQ Nation last week- regarding Griffin's dismissal- “I suspect this is only the beginning. The longer the BSA drags out what we all know is an inevitable end to this policy, the more collateral damage–like this episode–they will incur along the way.”

Breymaier, who mailed his medal back last week said he spent 10 years as a Scout in his native Toledo, Ohio- then another decade years in the same troop as an adult leader. Breymaier noted that while he never enforced the organisation's anti-gay policy, it was difficult to do more than quietly flout the rule within his troop.

"It was a family, and it was hard to pull away from it," Breymaier said. "I was fully aware that it was wrong, but speaking out against that could have gotten you kicked out."

Wahls, a frequent critic of the Boy Scouts policy, said he did not know of a coordinated effort to return medals in protest.

"It speaks volumes about the passion people feel toward this issue," said Wahls. "There's an incredible amount of work that goes into earning an Eagle Scout badge. It means more to me than my high school diploma."

Breymaier told the Tribune that he won't allow his 8-year-old son to re-enroll in Scouting this year because of the decision. He would like to start his own local group that can impart Boy Scout values without excluding anyone.

Dr. Mark Varnum, who operates optometry offices in Bangor, Maime sent a letter Monday to the BSA’s national executive board saying that he is “ashamed” of the organisation's recent reaffirmation of the policy and enclosed his Eagle Scout medal, which he earned as a 16-year-old in Presque Isle, Bronze Palm award, which is granted when a Scout attains merit badges after attaining the rank of Eagle Scout, and two advancement medals.

“Scouting, by its very nature, is meant to encourage character building and to teach leadership,” Varnum said. “In my opinion, you can’t be a leader and you can’t teach character if you’re going to discriminate against other people.”