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Boy Scouts Board Member Resigns After Gay Belmont Co. Cub Scout Leader Booted

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A Boy Scouts board member has resigned and is calling for the organization to re-examine its policy against homosexuals after a Cub Scout leader who lives in Belmont County was booted for being a lesbian.

In his resignation letter posted on the website of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a gay rights group, David Sims said Jennifer Tyrrell's removal "goes against [his] fundamental beliefs of how we should treat our fellow human beings and is, in [his] opinion, wholly discriminatory."

Sims was a member of the board of directors of the Ohio River Valley Council of the Boy Scouts.

More than 265,000 have signed an online petition on Change.org to reinstate Tyrrell, the former den leader for Pack 109's Tiger Scouts in Bridgeport. She started the petition about two weeks ago.

Deron Smith, a spokesperson for Boy Scouts, told WOUB News that the organization is not "the right forum for children to become aware of the issue of sexual orientation, or engage in discussions about being gay."

He added that it's their policy that gay people aren't allowed to be members.

"They're saying that gay and lesbian people are dangerous to children, and that's absolutely false," Tyrrell said. "That couldn't be further from the truth. I'm just a normal parent wanting to be involved in my son's life."