An 8-year-old boy from New Jersey was forced to leave his Cub Scout troop because he is transgender, the boy’s family claims.
According to The Record, Joe Maldonado was told to leave his New Jersey troop in November after joining the group the previous month.
“I’m way more angry than sad,” Joe told the Record. “My identity is a boy. If I was them, I would let every person in the world go in. It’s right to do.”
Maldonado’s mother Kristie said her son has been accepted over the last year since he started identifying as male, and that a phone call from the Northern New Jersey Council of Boy Scouts was the first time she heard of anyone having any problems with her son’s participation in Cub Scouts. Council executive Eric Chamberlin admitted to calling Kristie but did not share any other information about the conversation, according to the Associated Press.
The Boy Scouts have had to address similar controversy in the past because of bans on openly gay scouts and scout leaders. Those bans have since been lifted—in 2013 for regular members, and in 2015 for leaders. They were just a little behind the times, as the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell act, which banned openly gay members of the U.S. military, was repealed in 2011.
Cub scouts spokeswoman Effie Delimarkos told the Record that the “gender identity isn’t related to sexual orientation,” and that Boy Scouts must have birth certificates that confirm their male gender. But Justin Wilson, the executive director of Scouts for Equality, told the Record that he had never heard of a boy having to present a birth certificate in order to join the Scouts.
Earlier this year, the Boy Scouts announced that they would allow transgender children to participate in their coed programs, but not activities restricted to only boys, including Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, according to the Associated Press.
The Girl Scouts does accept transgender participants and has done so for years. The Boy Scouts should definitely follow in their sisters’ footsteps—this bigotry is not a good look.