Transgender boy asked to rejoin scouts

An 8- year- old North Jersey transgender boy who was forced out of the Cub Scouts because he was born a girl was asked to rejoin in what amounts to a major shift in policy for the Boy Scouts of America, which issued a statement Monday night indicating that it’s opening its membership to transgender children.

“Starting today, we will accept and register youth in the Cub and Boy Scout programs based on the gender identity indicated on the application,” the Boy Scouts said in the statement. “Our organization’s local councils will help find units that can provide for the best interest of the child.”

Kristie Maldonado of Secaucus said she received a call on Monday night from the Northern New Jersey Council of the Boy Scouts telling her that her son, Joe, would be welcome back as a Cub Scout. Joe’s story, first reported in

The Record in December, led to a national debate over the Boy Scouts’ policy at a time when the organization appeared to be emerging from a period of turmoil after its decisions, amid heated internal discussions, to overturn bans against gay Scouts and gay Scouting leaders in recent years.

His mother said she was surprised by Monday’s call, when she was told that the Scouts would change their policy and no longer go by the gender on a birth certificate. Last year, in response to questions by The

Record, the Boy Scouts said they check birth certificates to determine eligibility for programs that are restricted to boys, but on Monday night they said in a statement that “that approach is no longer sufficient as communities and state laws are interpreting gender identity differently, and these laws vary widely from state to state.”

LGBT advocates had said they were unaware of the Scouts ever asking for birth certificates, and Kristie Maldonado said she was never asked for one. On Monday, when leaders told her they no longer require birth certificates, she said she asked them: “So what did you change?”

She said she filed a civil rights complaint against the Northern New Jersey Council of the Boy Scouts last week, charging the organization with discrimination and was considering going ahead with it. Joe had been a member of the pack for a month when a council official called her last year to tell her he would no longer be allowed to belong.

DANIELLE PARHIZKARAN, NORTHJERSEY. COM Joe Maldonado, 8, and his mother, Kristie Maldonado, of Secaucus, talk last fall about Joe being forced out of the Cub Scouts because he was born a girl.