George Takei will join Jennifer Tyrrell
and GLAAD at this Sunday's New York City Gay Pride march to protest
the Boy Scouts of America's policy banning openly gay scouts and
leaders.
According to the New
York Daily News, Takei, who is openly gay, will march to
protest the ban.
“I was a Boy Scout, and I have
wonderful memories of my Boy Scout days and we had no issues like
what has come up in recent times,” Takei said. “I'm saddened and
shocked by the policy the Boy Scouts have.”
Tyrrell is the 32-year-old Ohio mom who
in April was ousted as den leader of her son's Boy Scout troop
because she is a lesbian. She launched the Change.org petition to
bring awareness of the Boy Scouts' policy banning openly gay scouts
and leaders.
The petition, which attracted 275,000
electronic signatures, was delivered by gay rights activist Zach
Wahls earlier this month.
Soon afterward, a resolution which
would allow individual charter organizations to decide for themselves
whether to accept openly gay members and leaders was introduced.
Spokesman Deron Smith, however, warned
that the “introduction of a resolution does not indicate the
organization is 'reviewing' a policy or signal a change in
direction.”
Wahls, an Eagle Scout, also launched
Scouts
for Equality to lobby the group to approve the resolution.