Losing Eagle for being gay

[skeptic]

Possibly they could simply delete the record at National, but not bother with anything else. The fine print explanation under "trustworthy" back in the old days indicated they could take away badges.

 

A SCOUT IS TRUSTWORTHY:

 

A Scout's honor is to be trusted. If he were to violate this honor by cheating, lying, or not doing an assigned task, when trusted upon his honor, he may be directed to hand over his scout badge.

 

We had to memorize all the explanations of the time.

 

Still, apparently there is no record at National level of this. I do know that we have had Silver Beaver recipients disappear from the lists when they were convicted of certain crimes. Possibly there may be Eagles on local levels as well.

 

[packsaddle]

Where are these lists? I have met several old Eagles who can't find themselves in any database at any level in BSA. I think that lots of people might be dropped from a BSA database and it would have nothing whatsoever to do with crimes or homophobia. BSA simply is lousy at database management except perhaps for invention of phantom units and boys.

[OldGreyEagle]

I can tell you a happy story,

 

I met a colleague whose nephew had earned Eagle, had his Board of Review but before his Court of Honor could be held, family upheaval and distress (its a long story) occured and the Court of Honor was never held. When I met her, she found I was in Boy Socuts and told me she always regretted her nephew never getting his Eagle medal. and was there anything I could do. I called Irving and got the Advancement section and was told if I could give them the boy's name, troop number and town, they could look it up. I got the information and called them back. They did have him on file as an Eagle Scout. For a sum, they sent me an Eagle Certificate and medal which we presented to the young man (he is 26) at a family gathering. The guy was speechless, he had totally forgotten he never got his medal but because National had his name on file, I was able to get a replacement certificate and medal. Course, it had President Bush's name on in and not president Clinton, but it struck me. I should start collection of eagle certificates with the change of each president and get one for every president. What do you think?

[packsaddle]

I think that was great, I'm really glad that he was able to have that honor. At the same time, the guys I'm writing about are in their 60s and 70s. So maybe I'll call Irving and give it a try. What the heck. I'd gladly dine on crow if they came through for those fellas.

 

Edited to add: I'd have a lot more 'faith' in the system if the Mormons were keeping all the records.(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

[jr56]

I can't be certain that they are 100 accurate all the time, but when I joined NESA, supposedly they check with national, and they had me on file, from "71".

 

[epalmer84]

This issue has cropped up on several Scouting-related Wikipedia articles, but none are referenced so the content does not stick for long. If National had revoked James Dale's Eagle, it would have been very public.

 

As to receiving Eagle Scout after a long period...

 

The longest known period between board of review and presentation is for Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of the TV. He would have been 100 in 2006, but he died in 1971.

 

The oldest known person to have had a board of review was Eugene Cheatham, one of the Tuskegee Airman. He was allowed to have a board of review at age 89.

 

Ed Palmer

[Mr. Boyce]

To me, the "losing Eagle for being gay" thing is an urban myth.

 

I read the papers regularly, and over the years have never seen any specific news item on this.

 

However, it IS something that I have heard people, once or twice when heatedly debating homosexuality, claim to have happened.

 

But of course at that point, those arguments are just hot rhetoric and anything that sounds good/helps your viewpoint gets tossed into the salad.

[emb021]

"Mr. Boyce"'s comments were what I was thinking.

 

The person I was 'discussing' this with is a young scout who obviously heard such claims and believed them, then was very rude to me claiming I obviously don't read papers/watch tv, because 'otherwise I'd know it was true'. Yeah, right.

 

Of course, he wasn't able to provide evidence. But what do you expect of some kid who doesn't understand the basics of debate and citing proof of your claims?

 

I even gave the example of Dale. Never heard of him having his Eagle taken away, and he's probably the most well gay to be kicked out in recent years.

 

[Mr. Boyce]

You know, perhaps the origin, or one of the origins of this, was that there were Eagle Scouts returning their Eagle medals in protest, and perhaps one or some of them claimed to be gay.

 

But in terms of something mandated or enforced, I just haven't seen the evidence. If you got it, illuminate me.

[LsStuff]

Hey there

wow a lot of controversy on the different forums here. it is interesting how many go off and have huge threads on off subject not what was asked.

 

According to what i have read and asked about - Once you recieve your Eagle, it can not be taken away. I say this because there was a case in our council of a scout molesting other scouts. He was kicked out of scouting and Serving jail time, but the BSA can not take away his Eagle.

 

Many Individuals who are gay and asked to leave or kicked out by the BSA hand in there Eagle as a sigh of protest. For what does the Eagle represent if we are kicking people out because of sexual orientation, especially when no inapropriate behavior has taken place? oh yes just being gay is inappropriate to some. The above named individual who molested other boys was not gay.

 

if you want to read more on the subject of being gay and scouting policy from a non BSA standpoint go to the webpage SCOUTING FOR ALL. they can give you details ect on what has happened and what can happen to gay or athiest youth or leaders.

 

Again I trulley wish that we would follow the example of England - the home of Lord Baden Powell - and not exclude boys for these reasons. Boys are too young to fully understand those choices. If there is inapropriate behavior -Yes definetly kick then - but just because people are different does not make them bad and you never know what they will take with them from the program

[eagle77]

As long as BSA has religion as a major tenent in its program you will always have those that will be excluded. Go figure.

[fgoodwin]

emb21, who told you this story? You should ask that person for proof.

 

It isn't up to us to confirm or deny another person's story -- its up to them to prove it.