Kristie Maldonado on Thursday said that
parents pressured the Cub Scouts to oust her 8-year-old transgender
son from the organization.
Joe Maldonado, who decided to start
living as a boy last year, was asked to leave Pack 87 in Secaucus in
November, only a month after he joined the program.
Mother and son appeared on CNN, where
Kristie said that she had informed the group that her son was
transgender.
“So what do you think changed?”
host Don Lemon asked.
“I believe it has to do with some of
the parents,” she answered. “They made a call. Because they
didn't ask for a birth certificate.”
Joe said the ouster was “ridiculous.”
“I really don't understand why they
kicked me out all because I was born a girl. This is just
ridiculous,” he
said.
The Boy Scouts of America ended its ban
on openly gay Scouts in 2013. Last year, it agreed to allow openly
gay adults in the organization.
“No youth may be removed from any of
our programs on the basis of his or her sexual orientation,”
spokeswoman Effie Delimarkos said in a statement. “Gender identity
isn't related to sexual orientation.”
This is believed to be the first case
in which a transgender Scout has been rejected by the organization.