for the here and now. that s the wonder of streamlined connections. that s merrill edge and bank of america. coming up in the next half hour, the boy scouts debate and then vote later on whether to drop openly gay scouts. my next guest is right on the front lines of this very debate. eagle scout author of my two moms and activists zach wahls. you made a moving speech to minnesota lawmakers about your two moms, as many of us know. yesterday you addressed the council meeting. what was your message and do you think is resonated here? our chief focus is making sure that scouts know that discrimination is not one of scouting values as it tells us
because we didn t get a straight no. that s the interesting part. they ve been pretty hard line about this. zach, your mothers are gay. that s right. and you joined this organization knowing that they would not let your mothers be involved, say, on the girl scouts side as a troop leader or something. i joined this program when i was 6 years old because i wanted to experience the great outdoors and all that stuff. my moms did get involved. it was a don t ask/don t tell policy and the leaders in iowa where i was growing up were willing to turn a blind eye. my mom, jackie, became a den mother, a mama grizzly, if you will and was a highly revered leader. so they were part of the scouting experience and i saw first hand there s no incongruence with scouting values in lgbt people. people who are trying to speak
to experience the great outdoors and all that stuff. my moms did get involved. it was a don t ask/don t tell policy and the leaders in iowa where i was growing up were willing to turn a blind eye. my mom, jackie, became a den mother, a mama grizzly, if you will and was a highly revered leader. so they were part of the scouting experience and i saw first hand there s no incongruence with scouting values in lgbt people. people who are trying to speak out about lifting this ban, it s not about the boy scouts. it s about the problem they have with people who are gay, people who save people s lives, people like my mom who work for the veterans affairs hospitals and protect the men and women in uniform. daniel, for those of us who live outside of boy scout world, what does it mean to the larger community, do you think? i think it s one of the larger parts of sea change? acceptance of the the community.
because if he does support this, zack, the fact that he along with other board members would like to see this ban lifted, why do you think that it would get pushed to this larger voting body? and do you find that to be encouraging or less encouraging? it s disappointing. it s absolutely an abdication of responsibility. the boy scouts of america was founded on basic values, respect, courtesy, kindness, bravery. this is walking away from that. what we re going to see is thousands of scouts and scout families all over the country continue to suffer from the silence of shame that some people have forced upon them by saying that their views about what it means to be gay trumps these basic scouting values. so while we are very disappointed by today s announcement and we think this is not a move in the right direction, we will continue to work with local councils all over the country, to continue to highlight why this is a bad move and why it s hurting local organizations all over the count