Jennifer Tyrrell, the volunteer den mother to her son’s Cub Scout chapter who was ousted from her position because she is gay, spoke out against the Boy Scouts’ anti-gay discrimination at the GLAAD Media Awards on Saturday.
Tyrrell told the star-studded GLAAD audience that it was time for her and her family to stand up for what’s right.
“My son and other boys in his pack are becoming leaders, and that has nothing to do with my sexual orientation,” Tyrrell said.
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Tyrrell said all she wants is to return to her “life of merit badges and knots” in the Scouts, and one day watch her son Cruz grow into a leader.
To date, more that 129,000 people have signed Tyrrell’s petition at Change.org calling for the Boy Scouts to dump its anti-gay policy.
The Boy Scouts of America has previously defended its policy as a First Amendment privilege, and the Supreme Court agreed with that argument in 2000.