Citizen Leader: Zach Wahls, Co-Founder of Scouts for Equality

Eagle Scout Zach Wahls challenged the Boy Scouts of America’s anti-gay policy in May 2012 when he delivered three boxes of petitions demanding change, signed by more than 275,000 people.

Inspired by the story of Jennifer Tyrrell, a den mother forced to resign from her seven-year-old son’s Cub Scout pack because of her sexual orientation, and the groundswell of support she has received since, Mr. Wahls and a number of other Eagle Scouts frustrated with the Boy Scouts of America’s long-standing exclusion of gay individuals have created Scouts for Equality.

Shortly thereafter, Ernst & Young CEO James Turley made history by becoming the first Boy Scouts of America Executive Board Member to publicly oppose the anti-gay policy and promised to work from within to change it.