New York Boy Scouts of America Hires Openly Gay Camp Leader

Meet Pascal Tessier.

He’s an Eagle Scout — and while that fact is resume fodder alone, it’s not the important part of this story. On his 18th birthday (which was last year), Tessier wrote an open letter to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). While he commends the BSA for teaching him the “morals and values” that shaped the man he had become, he was bidding farewell to the organization because it banned gay adults.

And there’s the rub — here someone who has reached the pinnacle of the organization but can’t enjoy that success because he’s gay.

“Today is my 18th birthday, a milestone on my path to becoming an adult and the day I am no longer eligible to be a Boy Scout because I am gay,” he