The Chicago Tribune did a story about former ACLU of Illinois client Doug Ferguson and his experience being a gay Eagle Scout in light of a recent statement from a Boy Scouts of America board member urging them to revise their ban on gay scouts. In the 90's the ACLU of Illinois challenged, in a series of court actions, Boy Scout youth programs that excluded both participants and potential employees on the basis of their sexual orientation and religious beliefs.
Ferguson, a 41-year-old Chicago attorney, is both gay and a proud Eagle Scout, an honor he earned in the late 1980s by collecting and organizing 10 tons of provisions for his church's food pantry.
"It was a way of bringing together my involvement in my faith with Scouts," he explained. "Thinking back now, it certainly gives me a little bit of pain to know that if I had been out about my sexual orientation ... they would have said, 'Thanks, but no thanks.'"
