Man Sends His Eagle Medal to Shunned Gay Boy Scout

[Are_grits_groceries]

Dr. Andrew Zerbinopolous
The Boy Scout who was refused an Eagle Medal because he dared to come out to friends and family as gay will be getting the awards — but not from the antigay organization.

The New York Daily News reports that Dr. Andrew Zerbinopolous saw the story of 17-year-old Ryan Andresen and sent him his Eagle Medal. “If I can make him feel like he has some support out there, it’s worth it to me to send him a piece of metal,” said Zerbinopolous, according to First Coast News.

Andresen had joined the Boy Scouts at age 6 "and since then he's dreamed of earning his Eagle Awards — the highest rank in the Boy Scouts," his mother wrote in an online petition calling for the award to be given.

The Scouts doesn't allow openly gay scouts or troop leaders. Companies like Intel that had donated to the group have ended their support to any local chapter that doesn't eschew the national policy. Still others like UPS refuse to stop making donations.
http://www.advocate.com/youth/2012/10/11/heartwarming-story-man-who-sent-his-eagle-medal-gay-boy-scout

Good on you Dr. Zerbinopolous!

[AtomicKitten]

1. Extremely cool of him. Well done.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Yes, indeedy!

[chknltl]

2. Heartwarming stories like this are all too rare.

I wish the news was made up of more such stories. KnR.

[xchrom]

3. ...

[Swede Atlanta]

5. Thank you Dr. Zerbinopolous!!!!!

[surrealAmerican]

6. It's a very nice gesture.

[DevonRex]

7. His troop needs to arrange a ceremony

for him, minus the leader. I know that there must be many Eagle Scouts in the area who would love to take part too.

It would not be official but it would be meaningful.

[beachgirl2365]

8. How BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Way to go DOC!!

[wtmusic]

9. It's bizarre to me that Boy Scouts as any kind of stance on sexuality

It's personal and has no place in their activities.

[hunter]

10. Wow.

[shireen]

11. it's a lovely gesture. But i can't stop contributing to the boy scouts.

A sweet little boy was at my door a few days ago selling popcorn for a fundraiser. What was i supposed to tell him? I can't buy the popcorn because his organization does not support gay scouts and troop leaders? He's too young to understand it. It's not fair to penalize the youngsters because their adult leadership are a bunch of knuckle-heads. There has to be another way to affect change in that organization and continue to support the kids' activities.

Edited to add: I'm just saying that because if an organization was homophobic, i'd boycott them.

[Are_grits_groceries]

12. Wait! Whut?

The Boy Scouts are about as homophobic as you can get! If you are a gay scoutmaster, out you go. That is only one example.

In addition, there is evidence that they have covered up pedophiles in their organization. That is becoming a huge issue.

I'm sorry that kids get caught in the middle. However, the actions of the Boy Scouts are so egregious on so many fronts, they need to be overhauled from top to bottom. There are few ways to affect change but boycott when their leaders are so intransigent.

[tavalon]

13. And here we have the occasionally elusive but always around,

Upstanding American citizen. I didn't bother to chec what his orientation might be, because it's irrelevant. Decent people come in all shapes and sizes, except maybe Eddie Munster. He.s pretty well devils spawn.

[CRK7376]

14. Well done!

Thank you Dr. Andrew Zerbinopolous! As a fellow Eagle Scout all I can say is I wish I had thought of that.