Parents protest lesbian Scout leader’s ouster

First-grade boys in Ohio pack lose den mother to national group’s policy.

The first-graders in Ohio Pack 109’s Tiger Scouts didn’t know or care their den mother was a lesbian — at least not until the Boy Scouts of America threw her out to comply with the organization’s ban on gays.

Now, parents who were aware of Jennifer Tyrell’s sexual orientation before she took the boys on campouts and helped them carve race cars for the annual Pinewood Derby have rallied to her defense in a case that has re-ignited the debate over the Scouts’ policy.

The Boy Scouts of America, whose oath calls for members to be “morally straight,” maintains that as a private organization it has the right to exclude gays and atheists from its ranks.

That stance was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 but has led many state and local governments to deny support for the Scouts.

Because of the policy, Tyrell said she only reluctantly let her 7-year-old son join in Bridgeport, where she lives with her partner and their four children. Told by the local cub master that being a lesbian didn’t matter, she said, she was drafted to lead the pack in September.

Tyrell told parents at their first meeting about her sexual orientation. Some already knew her because she had coached youth baseball and volunteered at school.

“She wasn’t trying to hide anything,” said Rob Dunn, whose son is among the dozen or so members of the boys-only pack. “Nobody I know of has ever made a single complaint against her.”

Tyrell said she was removed in April, right after she was asked to take over as treasurer of the local Boy Scout troop.

She said the Boy Scout Council for the region told her she must resign because she is gay.

“In this case, the policy was understood by her and her fellow volunteers but not followed,” said Deron Smith, a spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America at its headquarters in Irving, Texas. “When a fellow pack leader made a complaint about it, to a local Scouting professional, they followed the policy.”

The organization said it believes Scouting is not the right place for youngsters to be exposed to issues of sexual orientation.

Tyrell said she is not certain who complained, but she felt betrayed.

Parents organized a protest last week at the church where the pack held its meetings. They demanded Tyrell be reinstated.

Gay rights groups have started an online petition to get the Scouts to change their policy.

BEBETO MATTHEWS / AP Jennifer Tyrrell and her son, Cruz Burns, 7, in New York on Wednesday to build support for a petition to overturn the Boy Scouts’ ban on gays, was den leader for her son’s Tiger Scout pack in Bridgeport, Ohio.