After a month of science experiments and barbeques at a New Jersey chapter, he was told he's no longer welcome. The reason he was given: he was born a girl. Joe is transgender. Until two years ago, he'd gone by Jodi. "I felt very upset but then very angry because it's just not fair that because I was born a girl they won't let me in," Joe told CNN. Kristie Maldonado, Joe's mother, says she told the Scouts chapter before registering Joe that he's transgender. She says she was told the Scouts policy is to "go by birth certificate, what you're born with."
The local Scouts counselor didn't respond to CNN calls seeking comment. But Effie Delimarkos, director of communications for the Boy Scouts of America, said in a statement that Joe "does not meet the eligibility requirements to participate in this program," and that the Boy Scouts referred him to alternative programs. The statement added that the Boy Scouts "defer to the information provided for an individual's birth certificate and their biological sex" in determining who can join.Our boy D'Angelo was briefly a member of the Cub Scouts. This was back when the BSA was much more against gay Scouts and Scout leaders. We also gave the troop leader advance warning that D' has two fathers and asked him to send us away before we got involved with the group. He told us that our involvement with our son's troop was technically against the rules, but we could remain involved as long as other parents didn't object to our involvement with our son's Cub Scout troop.'
But D' really wanted to join the Cub Scouts, so we did it. Fortunately, he lost interest within a few months.