A gay 19-year-old who worked a summer position at a Boy Scouts of America camp but was then outed as gay on his Facebook page by friends is now complaining that the organization won’t hire him back.
The BSA has a policy that gay boys can participate in the organization but gay adults cannot.
Garrett Bryant, of Arizona, said he was aware of the BSA’s rule against gay men in leadership roles and panicked when he found that someone referenced his homosexuality on Facebook — and that’s when he tried to delete the comments, NBC News reported. Many of his social media followers were members of the BSA’s Camp Geronimo community and he feared the posting wrecked his chances to be rehired.
His fears did come true.
Just a week after his Facebook post, Mr. Bryant said a camp leader told him he couldn’t work at the site because of his social media references to his homosexuality, NBC reported.
And now Mr. Bryant — who said he’d been with the Scouts since third grade — is complaining.
“I viewed my sexuality as something i was going to keep private,” he said, NBC reported. “It was my private life. I wasn’t going to share it with the BSA. They made an issue of my sexuality. I was perfectly content with staying in the closet with the Scouts. … It’s like you’re a part of a family, and you’re being disowned from it.”
The BSA declined to comment on Mr. Bryant’s statements, but said only that the local council found he “did not meet requirements for employment,” NBC reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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