Eagle Scout Returns His Medal
COSTELLO: It is the highest achievement a boy scout can earn. It's the Eagle Scout medal and badge and it's not easy to get one, earn one -- I should say. Only two percent of scouts attain Eagle Scout status. And now dozens of Eagles, as they are called, are returning their medals to the Boy Scouts; it's all to protest the organization's reaffirmation on the organization's ban on gays. Martin Cizmar is one of those Eagle Scouts. Good morning and welcome.</s>MARTIN CIZMAR, EAGLE SCOUT: Good morning. Thanks.</s>COSTELLO: Why did you decide to return your medal?</s>CIZMAR: They had a secret review and they just decided without really even allowing their board to vote on it that they were going to continue be in on gay scouts. And I just didn't want to have my Eagle badge as long as they were doing that.</s>COSTELLO: What did your Eagle Scout status mean? I mean, tell me how special this was for you as a boy scout.</s>CIZMAR: I joined scouts after I turned 11 and got my Eagle when I turned 18 and it was the biggest day of my life to that point. I mean it was something I was really proud of. I moved around the country. I always brought my badge with me everywhere I moved because it's something that I really treasured.</s>COSTELLO: I think the motto is once an Eagle, always an Eagle, though, right?</s>CIZMAR: I think that's the motto, but I'm no longer an Eagle. I turned my badge in and I have said that I'm not (inaudible) to the organization any more so long they continue a policy of discrimination.</s>COSTELLO: What did they say when you turned your medal in?</s>CIZMAR: You know, I haven't heard back. I sent a letter and I posted it to Facebook and a lot of people shared it around and a lot of other Eagles had been doing that before and have done it since. I haven't heard back yet. The spokesman just keeps kind of sending off the same press release to everybody who asks him about it so I'm not sure what they think.</s>COSTELLO: Were you really surprised that the Boy Scouts reaffirmed their policy? Religion has always entered into this organization.</s>CIZMAR: Well, religion, yes, but there are a lot of religions that don't believe it's ok to discriminate against gay people. The Episcopal Church, for example. There are a lot of troops that meet in Episcopal churches where there might be a gay priest and yet a gay boy can't be in the troop and tying knots with the other scouts. I was surprised that they did it especially in the way they did after having just a secret review and then handing this down rather than actually discussing it and allowing it to be an issue that they took seriously.</s>COSTELLO: I understand that the President of the United States is the honorary president of the Boy Scouts. That is the tradition along all of our presidents. Do you think President Obama ought to remain the honorary president of the Boy Scouts?</s>CIZMAR: I think he should to look at it after November and think about. I think that there are bigger issues for the country to address right now than that. But I think it's something that he and other politicians who accept awards from the Boy Scouts should think very seriously about.</s>COSTELLO: Do you think many Eagle Scouts are following your lead?</s>CIZMAR: I have seen about a hundred online so far. So I think that there are some. I mean Eagle Scouts tend to be great people and all of the Eagles I've met everywhere I've gone, I've met so many great people and they are principled people and I think that, yes, there will be more that will continue to do this.</s>COSTELLO: Martin Cizmar, thanks so much for joining us this morning.</s>CIZMAR: Thanks.</s>COSTELLO: What could be done about Islamophobia in American? That's what we are asking you today. Your responses next.