Scout official resigns, supports ousted gay leader

A board member for an Ohio regional Boy Scouts group who resigned to protest the removal of a lesbian den mother said he wants the national organization to review its ban on gays.

The Boy Scouts of America's policy of not allowing gays within its ranks has been debated for more than a decade since being upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. It is facing renewed questioning in eastern Ohio after Jennifer Tyrrell, the mother of a 7-year-old scout, was thrown out in April.

David Sims resigned from the Ohio River Valley Council's board Friday after learning of Tyrrell's story.

"Ms. Tyrrell's removal goes against my fundamental beliefs of how we should treat our fellow human beings and is, in my opinion, wholly discriminatory," he said in his resignation letter, released by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.