The Iowa student whose impassioned marriage equality plea became YouTube's most-watched political video of 2011 after going viral twice sounded off on the Boy Scouts of America's current policy banning gay participants in a new interview.
Zach Wahls, who's also a published author and HuffPost Gay Voices blogger, took Ethics and Public Policy Center President Ed Whelan to task on the subject on CNN.
"There's a vast difference between being opposed to gay marriage and opposing the enrichment and development of young men because they happen to be not straight," Wahls proclaimed. "I think [Whelan] should understand that the Scouts is about respecting the opinions of all the people who want to be members, not just some."
On Jan. 31, Whelan published an Op-Ed in The New York Post titled "Scouting's Suicide," in which he asked, "Imagine that a group of girls is going on a long camping trip, supervised by adult volunteers who are young men you barely know. Would you let your 15-year-old daughter go?"
He went on to note, "As the father of a soon-to-be Eagle Scout, I’ve taken part in summer camps, a canoeing trip in remote northern Ontario and several other overnight outings ... Injecting the aura of possible sexual attraction would degrade the experience."
Before You Go
