Boy Scouts Caught Kicking Out Gay Scout On Tape

Impact

On the same day that the Boy Scouts of America voted to approve a proposal to lift the 1991 ban on openly gay members, a video is going viral showing a scout being kicked out after telling a man who appears to be a scout leader that he is gay. The video is part of the forthcoming documentary Second Class Citizens, which follows the gay rights movement. The gay man, 19-year-old Scout Eric Jones, was applying for a position at a summer camp. Although the approval of the proposal means Jones will likely be reinstated into BSA, openly gay men would still be barred from leadership positions such as the one he applied to.

25-year-old Ryan James Yezak, the director of Second Class Citizens, explains his project on its Kickstarter page, where his film project raised $176,354 in grassroots donations, more than three times the $50,000 goal. He describes the film as "a comprehensive look at the unfair treatment of homosexuals by our society and government." Yezak writes: "the idea for this documentary was born when I first learned that California's Proposition 8 had passed." Proposition 8 is the California ballot referendum passed in 2008 which overturned the California Supreme Court’s decision to recognize marriage equality. Proposition 8 banned same-sex marriage in California, and is currently being debated by the United States Supreme Court. A ruling is expected in June. To learn more about the Proposition 8 case, check out this page by the Human Rights Campaign.

"I am not a second class citizen. You are not a second class citizen," Yezak concludes, "Right now, the laws in place (and lack thereof) say that we are. Let's change that."

Watch the video below: