Ayla Huff

Gay teen denied Eagle Scout    

On Oct. 12 Miranda Leitsinger, NBC news wrote a story about a boy at the age of 18, Ryan Andresen, who was denied his Eagle Scout award from the National Organization after finishing the requirements needed because of his homosexuality. His father was the first to be notified of this policy and later told Ryan. The crushed teenager said these exact words, “It's not fair that gay people can’t go through it and can't get the recognition,” he said. "It’s especially not fair that people like me can go through the whole entire program, you know, do everything and get all the way to the Eagle award and at the very last minute be told they can’t get it. It's totally devastating, it’s terrible … that's bullying.”  He started a bullying project with the boy scouts called the Tolerance Wall. His mom broke down in tears when she heard him talk about bullying. When an fellow eagle scout, Mathew Kimball, heard about Ryan's problem, he publicly told everyone he was gay and gave his eagle scout pin to Ryan in New York on Oct. 12. Ryan says every time he looks at it, it gives him hope. I think that it's important that we treat everyone the same because I don't see a difference in people by their sexuality, gender, religion, or race. This article is important because this happens all the time to people every where. People should be based of their actions instead of what they look like or what they believe.