The Boy Scouts of America will vote next month on a proposal that would lift its ban on allowing gay boys to be scouts but would continue to bar gay adults from being scout leaders, the organization said Friday.

The proposal — a revision of a plan the Scouts floated in January that would have left it up to local troops whether to accept gay members and leaders — left advocates on both sides of the issue dissatisfied.

Opponents of accepting gay scouts complained that the organization would be abandoning its decades-old values, while supporters said the organization would be abandoning gay youths on their 18th birthdays.

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"The Boy Scouts are once again forcing me to look my children in the eyes and tell them that our family isn't good enough," said Jennifer Tyrrell of Bridgeport, Ohio, who was expelled last year as a den master for her 7-year-old son's Cub Scout den because she is a lesbian.

"My heart goes out to the young adults in Scouting who would be able to continue as scouts if this is passed, but then be thrown out when they reach the age to become leaders," Tyrrell said Friday.

But John Stemberger, founder of On My Honor, a coalition of Scouting parents and leaders who support the ban, said the proposal was "cleverly worded ... to dodge criticism from gay activists" while creating "a myriad of problems for how to manage and ensure the safety of the boys in the program."

"When it comes to young boys, parents should still have the final say on the issues of sexuality and politics, Stemberger said in a statement. "Allowing open homosexuality in the BSA injects both those topics right into the program."

The Scouts, one of the U.S.'s most popular private youth groups, said Friday that its National Council would vote on the proposal the week of May 20.

In an unexpected move in January, the organization proposed a resolution that would let local Scouting organizations decide for themselves whether to admit gay scouts and adult leaders. But it said Friday that it changed its mind after it was flooded with hundreds of thousands of responses to surveys it commissioned on the idea.

Among the 280 administrative local councils, half recommended no change, 38 percent recommended a change and 14 percent took a neutral position, the Scouts said.

"While perspectives and opinions vary significantly, parents, adults in the Scouting community and teens alike tend to agree that youth should not be denied the benefits of Scouting," the organization said in a statement.

Read the entire proposed resolution (.pdf)

The membership policy has roiled the Boy Scouts in recent years, particularly after the ouster of Tyrrell and the denial of the Eagle Scout rank to California teenager Ryan Andresen because he is gay. 

While many of the more than 116,000 local Scouting organizations nationwide are sponsored by religious groups that oppose gay and lesbian rights, the new resolution declares that "the Boy Scouts of America does not have an agenda on the matter of sexual orientation, and resolving this complex issue is not the role of the organization."

Zach Wahls, founder of the nonprofit activist group Scouts for Equality, disagreed. "We will continue to fight to push discrimination out of Scouting once and for all," he said.

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While "we are glad that the Boy Scouts of America is taking this historic step forward," the proposed ban on gay leaders would "continue to prevent many great and loving parents from sharing the joys of Scouting with their children," he said.

But Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian advocacy group, urged the Boy Scouts not to "jettison the core value that homosexual conduct is immoral."

"This resolution would introduce open homosexuality into the ranks and eventually the leadership of Scouting," Perkins said in a statement. "This is totally unacceptable to the vast majority of Scouting parents who want to keep their exclusive right to discuss issues of sexuality with their sons."

Hundreds of comments on the Scouts' Facebook page reflected those divisions, with many weighing in to urge the Scouts to continue its ban and others saying they were disappointed that the organization was splitting the difference by differentiating between gay youths and adults:

• "No person — youth or adult — should be denied Scouting membership because of their sexual orientation. This proposed resolution is a step in the right direction, but it is wholly insufficient. Now is the time for the Boy Scouts of America to take a firm stand and become a preeminent leader in morality and equality. Intolerance and bullying are not Scouting values."
• "Possibly the worst solution they could have come up with. It will satisfy no one, and will only prolong the issue. Almost any other alternative, from a complete acceptance of gays to a complete upholding of current policy would have been more defensible."
• "Evasive once again! They need to change the policy across the board and be done with it. Enough "beating around the bush" and trying to avoid the issues at hand! As a Cubmaster, I am truly fed up with the whole thing and can't wait to be done!"

Related:

Boy Scouts survey members on anti-gay policy

'Nasty internal fight' or 'strategic pause': Boy Scouts supporters weigh delay on gays

“Bob is 15 years old, and the only openly gay Scout in a Boy Scout troop. Is it acceptable or unacceptable for the troop leader to allow Bob to tent with a heterosexual boy on an overnight camping trip?”

“Tom started in the program as a Tiger Cub, and finished every requirement for the Eagle Scout Award at 16 years of age. At his board of review Tom reveals that he is gay. Is it acceptable or unacceptable for the review board to deny his Eagle Scout award based on that admission?” 

These are some of the questions on a survey being conducted by the Boy Scouts of America as the private youth organization prepares to decide whether it should end its controversial policy banning gay Scouts and leaders. The Boy Scouts intends to make a decision in late May on the ban, which has roiled the organization in recent years.

More than 1.4 million surveys have been emailed to registered volunteers, parents of Scouts and alumni. The questionnaires were part of a biannual survey, “The Voice of the Scout Survey,” that the BSA conducts of leaders, parents and youth over 14 years old. But this time, the BSA used the survey to add questions about the policy banning gays (those questions went only to adults).

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BSA spokesman Deron Smith, who provided the questions on the survey to NBC News, said in an email that “the BSA is committed to dialogue on the topic of its membership standards policy, within the Scouting family at the local and national levels.” The group was in the listening phase, which included the survey of key stakeholders, he added. 

The Boy Scouts’ policy has increasingly been a sore spot for the organization over the last year, following the dismissal of a den leader because she is a lesbian and the denial of the Eagle Scout rank to a California teen because he is gay. Some of the questions on the survey provide similar scenarios and ask respondents how acceptable or unacceptable these situations are.

When the BSA announced in late January that it may ditch the national policy and instead let local sponsoring organizations decide if gays can join, the organization received a flood of responses from both sides. It then decided to push a decision to May, when some 1,400 members of Scouting's National Council will vote on a resolution the Boy Scouts' officers are crafting on the policy. The survey results will be shared with those officers, Smith said.

Tristam Harrington, an assistant district commissioner for the Scouts in Okemos, Mich., who opposes changing the policy, said he thought the BSA had done a good job with the survey.

The members “have the right to have their say and I think it’s better for them to understand exactly where their membership stands,” he said Wednesday. “Are you just assuming it needs to change or is this really a groundswell from within the organization? Is this an outside influence? A combination of both? … You don’t really know unless you ask, and I think it’s fabulous that they’re actually, you know, taking the time to now ask.”

Steve Gates, Scoutmaster of Troop 98 in Taos, N.M., who supports changing the policy, agreed with Harrington.

 “They come at it from all sides and I think that’s good. I don’t see it as any kind of a biased survey,” he said.

But he added that some of the questions may rile up some members opposed to the change who could perceive talk on the issue in the survey as having validated homosexuality.

The survey was developed by a third-party research provider, North Star Opinion Research, with input from volunteer and professionals representing diverse viewpoints, Smith said. The Boy Scouts have asked for the surveys to be returned by April 4.

The BSA also asked if the currently policy was a “core value” of Scouting and if respondents would leave the BSA if a decision was made that disagreed with their view.

Other questions on the survey include:

• A gay male troop leader, along with another adult leader, is taking a group of boys on a camping trip following the youth protection guidelines of two-deep leadership. Is it acceptable or unacceptable for the gay adult leader to take adolescent boys on an overnight camping trip?
• A troop is chartered by an organization that does not believe homosexuality is wrong and allows gays to be ministers. The youth minister traditionally serves as the Scoutmaster for the troop. The congregation hires a youth minister who is gay. Is it acceptable or unacceptable for this youth minister to serve as the Scoutmaster? 
• Johnny, a first grade boy, has joined Tiger Cubs with his friends. Johnny’s friends and their parents unanimously nominate Johnny’s mom, who is known by them to be lesbian, to be the den leader. Johnny’s pack is chartered to a church where the doctrine of that faith does not teach that homosexuality is wrong. Is it acceptable or unacceptable for his mother to serve as a den leader for his Cub Scout den?
• David, a Boy Scout, believes that homosexuality is wrong. His troop is chartered to a church where the doctrine of that faith also teaches that homosexuality is wrong. Steve, an openly gay youth, applies to be a member in the troop and is denied membership. Is it acceptable or unacceptable for this troop to deny Steve membership in their troop?

If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on how your troop, pack or council is handling the BSA's decision on the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com. We may use some comments for a follow-up story, so please specify if your remarks can be used and provide your name, hometown, age, Boy Scout affiliation and a phone number.

Related stories: 

Boy Scouts: We need more time for decision on gay Scouts

After years of heartache, gay Scouts and supporters react warily over proposal to lift ban

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'BATTLESTATIONS!': Call-in war waged over Boy Scouts' ban on gays

A Cub Scout pack in Maryland may lose its charter if it maintains a policy welcoming gay families and members, a Scout official said Friday, raising once more a controversial issue that has roiled the Boy Scouts of America in recent years.

Pack 442 of Cloverly, Md., is conducting a poll of its members on its website about whether to retain its non-discrimination policy, which reads: “Pack 442 WILL NOT discriminate against any individual or family based on race, religion, national origin, ability, or sexual orientation.”

The members have until Friday 8 p.m., to decide if they will keep the policy and possibly not be rechartered, or if they will remove it and return to a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy welcoming all families, according to a statement on the pack’s website.

Les Baron, Scout Executive of the National Capital Area Council, or NCAC, to which the pack belongs, confirmed that the pack could lose its charter if it maintains the policy, which he noted was against the Boy Scouts’ longstanding ban on openly gay Scouts or leaders.

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“Hopefully we don’t get to that point. We are working with the pack to try to work out our differences,” he told NBC News. “The policy of the Boy Scouts are what they are and my job is to not bring into (it) my own personal feelings, and all I am trying to do is maintain the quality and integrity of the Boy Scouts of America and its policies.”

The pack said it must submit the chartering application by Saturday. At that point, Baron said, the council would then have to make a decision on the charter bid and would take the non-discrimination statement into account. He said the time to make a decision varied.

On the pack’s website, a statement said the council “contacted us a few weeks ago pressuring us to remove our statement, we attempted to negotiate a rewording of the statement that would represent a compromise on the matter, but ultimately NCAC leadership felt only removal of the statement would be acceptable.” The pack’s committee chair did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The policy was voted on by member families and “overwhelmingly approved” last August, according to the pack website, which also noted that its chartering organization supported the decision. The matter was discussed in detail with district leaders and the council from August through October 2012.

“As was stated above, it was only recently that NCAC contacted us saying they would no longer ‘allow’ this statement to be posted,” the website said.

The pack committee was split on the way forward, prompting the poll, according to the pack website.

“Some of the leaders feel the principle of non-discrimination is too precious to allow BSA to dictate that we abandon our local policy. Others feel that we should acquiesce to removal of the policy statement and return to a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy,” the website said.

Baron confirmed that he learned of the policy a few months ago. “The only reason that we do this program is try to provide quality opportunities and experiences for young people. It’s not about political issues and I’m sorry that it’s come down to that.”

A national BSA spokesman, Deron Smith, said the private organization "has policies that all councils and local units agree to follow."

"In this instance, this pack will need to evaluate if they agree to the annual chartered organization agreement," he wrote in an email to NBC News, adding that he wasn't aware of any special deadline given to the unit to make the decision. Baron said he was not aware of any deadline.

The Boy Scouts reaffirmed its ban on gays and lesbians in 2012 following a two-year confidential review.

After the Boy Scouts reaffirmed its policy banning gays, dozens of Eagle Scouts said in online postings that they had returned their medals, badges or membership cards in protest. But many other Eagle Scouts said they agreed with the policy. Since then, Smith has said there were no plans to revisit the membership guidelines.

Activist groups stepped up their campaign to end the policy after Ryan Andresen, an 18-year-old California teen, was denied the Eagle rank late last year because he is gay, and following the dismissal of Jennifer Tyrrell last April from her post as den leader of her son’s Tiger Cub pack in Bridgeport, Ohio, because she is a lesbian.

A number of troops have said they don’t follow the policy, and some companies and charities have said they would not contribute to the Boy Scouts because of the ban.

Updated at 6:45 pm ET -- More than 1,200 formerly secret Boy Scouts’ files detailing accusations of child sex abuse within the organization from 1965 to 1985 were published online Thursday by lawyers, one who said the documents revealed an unintentional but “de facto cover-up of abuse.”

The  documents, known as the “ineligible volunteer” files within the organization, were ordered released by the Oregon Supreme Court. Media organizations had sued for the release of the files, part of a 2010 case in which a Portland, Ore., jury decided that the Boy Scouts were negligent in allowing a former assistant Scoutmaster to associate with the organization's youth after he admitted molesting 17 boys.

“What we can read through the files, for us it represents the pain and the anguish of thousands of untold Scouts,” said attorney Paul Mones, who litigated the 2010 case on behalf of victims in Oregon with lawyer Kelly Clark. “While there are 1,247 files, we know that each Scout leader (accused of molestation) molested on the average more than one Scout.”

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The attorneys called for Congress to audit the Boy Scouts, which is a congressionally chartered organization, to ensure that the group was following its current policy to protect children from abuse. Boy Scouts National President Wayne Perry said later Thursday the organization welcomed any additional examination by authorities.

The files, which can be accessed on www.kellyclarkattorney.com, represent reports of Scouts allegedly abused by more than 1,200 different Scoutmasters and other adult volunteers across the country.

People will see in the files "over and over again where there is a concern that this material not get out … this will make Scouting look bad,” Clark said. Alleged offenders were also being “given second chances,” he added.

“In too many of these individual situations what happened was a de facto cover-up. I don’t believe that anybody woke up and conspired and said, ‘How do we create a system that would cover up child abuse?’ But when they put the interest of the organization ahead of the safety of kids, pretty soon they were engaged in a de facto cover-up of abuse,” Clark said.

Child sex abuse survivor on release of Boy Scouts' files: This 'empowers us' 

A sampling of some of the files:

-- An assistant Scoutmaster in Texas in 1965 admitted to several acts of “perversion,” a Boy Scout executive wrote.

“ … of course we don’t know yet whether the parents of the boys involved” are “going to file charges or not. The Minister of the Church is doing his best to protect Boy Scouting and keep this incident as quiet as possible …,” the executive wrote.

The man tried a dozen years later to take up the same post in another troop but was rejected.

-- A Scoutmaster in Pennsylvania who admitted to “acts of perversion with several troop members” in 1972 was put on probation though he had submitted his resignation letter. It’s not clear from the documentation if he indeed maintained the post, but one Scout executive wrote about the situation a few months after the first report:

“If it is acceptable with you, I would like to let this case drop. [He] is undergoing professional treatment in an effort to stabilize his emotional stability. He recognizes that he has had a problem and he is personally taking steps to resolve this situation. The community involved is rather unique and one father has threatened legal action which could only injure the Boy Scouts of America. Therefore, I would suggest that we let it drop. My personal opinion in this particular case is, ‘if it don't stink, don't stir it.’"

The man was later allowed to become a Scoutmaster for another troop in 1976 on a probationary status. Two years later, a Scout’s mother filed a complaint saying the man had punched her son in the chest, causing him bruises. The Boy Scouts decided to keep him on a probationary status.

A Boy Scouts' director of field services wrote one year later: “We have had no negative reports on [his] service during this past year. Apparently his character and leadership requirements have been satisfactory.” But in another document, that appears to be dated 10 years later, a Scouting official wrote on stationery from the national office: “This guy is not still in Scouting is he?”

-- A Cub Scout leader in Alaska was said to be caught sleeping in the nude with boys on a camping trip and showing them pornography.

“The response from the national organization … says: ‘I will agree that sleeping nude and showing boys pornographic books indicated very poor judgment in dealing with Cub Scouts,'” said the attorney Clark, who was reading from a letter dated 1981 during a press conference. “'I do not know, however, that this is a serious enough offense to refuse registration anywhere he might try to register unless there are more instances.'”

The file shows that a Boy Scouts' council executive submitted information from the Air Force that the man had faced a court-martial in December 1981. He was convicted of wrongfully and willfully permitting and condoning two boys under the age of 16 to engage in sexually oriented activities.

Included in the file is a newspaper article from 1991 about a suspected child molester. Another council executive had sent it in, noting that he had contacted police who confirmed the suspect was the former Cub Scout leader.

“If we can provide the training we have available for our youth maybe we can give them the ability to recognize this guy wherever he may show up,” he wrote. “Since he seems to be running and has had a past involvement with Scouting, we need to be alert.”

Clark said of the files: “There is absolutely no indication that anybody at least at the national level of Scouting was being proactive to get this problem out in the open to get the help of law enforcement and act sort of proactively with it. You do see regular … examples of top Scout leadership or regional Scout leadership taking steps to try to keep this quiet, to keep it under wraps.”

In a number of the cases, the allegations were later substantiated by court proceedings, the attorneys said. However, in a great many cases no such substantiation ever occurred.

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A report released by the Boy Scouts in September said that 829 of the files from Jan. 1, 1965, to June 30, 1984, involved suspicions or confirmations of inappropriate sexual behavior with 1,622 youth. The report was done for the organization by Janet Warren, a professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia.

Some of the findings included:

-- 486 of the men identified in the files as suspects were arrested at some time for a sex crime. It may have occurred before they got involved with Scouting, as a result of the incident noted in their file or after they left the organization.
--  In 531 of the cases, there was information indicating alleged inappropriate sexual behavior with multiple youths. 
--  In 252 of the cases, the available information indicated alleged inappropriate sexual behavior with only a single victim. 
-- 128 of the men in the files had their registration revoked within a year of signing up.
-- Police were involved in the investigation of 523 cases.

At the time, the Boy Scouts said in a letter that they would review their files created from 1965 to the present “and ensure that all good-faith suspicion of abuse has been reported to law enforcement.” They also said that there “have been instances where people misused their positions in Scouting to abuse children, and in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong.”

Boy Scouts admit response to sex abuse was 'insufficient' 

On Thursday morning, the organization reiterated that in a statement and also noted: “Where those involved in Scouting failed to protect, or worse, inflicted harm on children, we extend our deepest and sincere apologies to victims and their families.”

“While it is difficult to understand or explain individuals’ actions from many decades ago, today Scouting is a leader among youth-serving organizations in preventing child abuse,” the statement added.

In an interview with NBCDFW.com, Perry said: "I would ask parents to look at the programs we have and then judge us versus, maybe not the past, but judge where we are today and certainly judge us against any other youth service organization in the world and they will see that your kids are very, very safe."

He also said later in a statement that the organization would be hosting a youth protection meeting in November with experts to share and discuss best practices.

The attorneys said the files also could inform future prevention of child sex abuse since the documents revealed how pedophiles operated and infiltrated youth groups -- knowledge “no other youth organization had at that time or since,” Mones said.

“The importance is what Scouts could have done with this information,” he said. “At the trial they said they had never looked at the files to examine them for any purpose to protect Scouts. Their one goal of taking Scout leaders out who had molested Scouts, yes … they did take Scouts out. However, the information that they gleaned, how these people used Scouting activities to bring Scouts into their midst, how these guys were not just bad leaders … these people were leading Scouts.”

“So our goal really is to look to the future through the past,” he added.

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For John Mark Buckland, 42, who was abused by a Scout leader at Travis Air Force Base in Vacaville, Calif., the release represented an empowering moment.

“It unveils all the secrecy, or at least a good portion of it, and the secrecy is the biggest demon there is when it comes to things like this, because it’s by being hidden that it basically just eats people away like a cancer,” Buckland, of Huntington, W. Va., told NBC News. 

“We’ve been powerless up to now. We’ve been at the whims of a multibillion-dollar organization that … has all the money to keep us under a desk in a box. And for now, they can’t do it anymore.”

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Updated at 10:00 p.m. ET, Tuesday -- Matthew Kimball walked away from the Boy Scouts in 2005.

Since he was gay, Kimball knew that his sexual orientation would be at odds with the Boy Scouts of America’s policy banning gay Scouts and leaders. Kimball was both: an Eagle Scout and an assistant Scoutmaster.

 

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Kimball had not revealed his sexual orientation during his Scouting years. But he decided, like a number of other gay Scouts, that he could no longer stay publicly quiet about the organization’s membership policy after learning that Ryan Andresen, a teen from his own Troop 212 in Moraga, Calif., had been denied the Eagle rank last week because he is gay.

 

 

 

 

“My immediate reaction was frustration with myself, because I felt if I had done what this kid did … he wouldn’t have to be going through this, hopefully,” said Kimball, referring to Andresen’s coming out in July to his troop in a letter.

Kimball has called on other Eagle Scouts to give their pins to Andresen after the teen’s story emerged last week. “I never thought I’d ever come out in an explicit way ever,” Kimball, who was leaving Scouting as Andresen was joining the troop, told NBC News late Monday. “But I just felt like I had to.”

Andresen, 18, had completed the requirements to earn the Scouts’ highest honor, but his Scoutmaster would not sign off on the award because he is gay, his mother said. The Scoutmaster has not replied to emails or a phone call seeking comment.

Kimball, a technology entrepreneur in San Francisco, said he has received up to 170 pledges of pins from Eagle Scouts, including about 48 from Troop 212 alumni. Scouts for Equality said last week that some 300 Eagle Scouts had returned their regalia in protest to the Boy Scouts since the organization announced in July that it had re-affirmed its membership policy after a confidential, two-year review.

But many other Eagle Scouts have said they agreed with the policy.

“The BSA's stance on this policy, along with the policy that you must subscribe to a belief in a higher being have both come under attack over the past few years,” Scott Prater, a 45-year-old unit commissioner in the Chattahoochee District for the Boy Scouts’ Northeast Georgia Council, said last week in an email to NBC News. “Anyone who desires to sign up as a member, either as a boy, or as an adult, must read and sign a statement to the fact that they understand and agree to abide by those principles. If you knowingly sign that you agree to those principles and have no intent on abiding by the rules, then you shouldn't expect to get special consideration.”

A spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America, Deron Smith, said 50,000 Scouts earn the Eagle rank every year, and in August noted that a “few” had returned their medals, badges or certificates since the membership policy announcement. On Tuesday, he said he didn’t have an update on numbers of regalia returned, but noted such items were either kept at the national office or stored in the National Scouting Museum. He also said Scouting ranks, such as the Eagle Scout, represent a past achievement and the BSA did not revoke them once they were awarded.

Most of the Scouts pledging their pins were heterosexual, Kimball said, though a number of gay Eagle Scouts made similar offers in emails sent to NBC News since hearing of Andresen’s story. One of those was Eric-Richard de Lora, an adviser to the Gay-Lesbian Union that Andresen and others founded at his high school in Berkeley, Calif., this fall.

De Lora, 53, said he considered returning his Eagle in 1997 after coming out but felt strongly that he had earned it and decided to keep it. He also thought about returning it in 2000, when the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Boy Scouts on the anti-gay membership policy.

“Ultimately I held on to the award believing that it might someday serve a useful purpose,” said de Lora, a teacher at Maybeck High School.

That day appeared to come after Andresen informed de Lora last Monday about what was happening with his Eagle bid. Andresen, de Lora wrote, had completed the requirements for the Eagle, including building a “tolerance wall” for victims of bullying such as himself.

“This week I have finally decided that the best use of my award, short of giving it to Ryan, would be to donate it to the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco,” he wrote in an email to NBC News. “ … it seems the right place for both a tribute to homosexual Scouts and all that they have endured.”

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Another gay Eagle Scout, Robert Goris-Kolb, a 25-year-old pharmacist from Grand Island, N.Y., said his husband had been pushing him to return his badge after the BSA announced it was sticking with the membership policy.

“Unlike Ryan, at the time I earned my Eagle Scout badge I was not out of the closet, and did not have to face the indefensible discrimination he is currently confronted with,” he wrote. Media reports on Andresen have “finally pushed me over the edge and I can no longer stay on the sidelines of this tragedy. Instead of returning my award to the BSA however, I would like to send it to Ryan, so that if he does not win his fight against this organization, he may in one way be granted what he has rightfully earned.”

Karen Andresen, who had started an online petition calling for her son to get his Eagle rank, said the Scoutmaster knew about her son's sexual orientation and that Ryan was led to believe he would nonetheless get the award.

But Boys Scouts spokesman Smith said Andresen was no longer eligible for membership in Scouting because he did not meet the membership standard on sexual orientation and he had informed his unit leadership that he did not agree to Scouting’s principle of "Duty to God." The family disputed that, saying the only reason Andresen was denied the rank was "because the Boy Scouts of America has a problem with Ryan being gay."

Kimball, who knows Andresen’s father, Eric, the troop's chief administrator, attended a troop meeting earlier this week on how to resolve Ryan’s case. He said talks were under way on recognizing the teen’s accomplishment while keeping the troop together amid the difficult time and some hard feelings.

“I want Ryan to be recognized. I want him to get an Eagle award even if it’s mine,” he said. “It’s a physical symbol that encapsulates so many great memories and a really important time in our lives … it’s difficult to let go of, but for me, I knew that it would be a positive thing.”

If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com