Gay Dad Ousted as Cub Scout Volunteer

(Oct. 21) -- Jon Langbert is a self-described "hands-on dad," volunteering with his 9-year-old son's Cub Scout pack in Dallas and raising $13,000 last year through popcorn sales and other fundraisers.

He also happens to be openly gay -- something the other dads don't like.

They complained to the local pack leader, and the issue went all the way up to the national leadership of the Boy Scouts of America, which governs Cub Scouts activities as well. Last week, backed by a Supreme Court case 10 years ago that ruled the Boy Scouts aren't required to accept gay members or leaders, the group ousted Langbert and banned him from wearing his Cub Scouts volunteer uniform.

"I just found out a few days ago that some of the dads are not happy about having a gay guy running the popcorn fundraiser," Langbert told his local CBS 11 TV station.

"They are sending the message that I am a lesser father, that I am not morally straight or I am not a good role model," he told Fox News. "I have worked so hard for the past nine years to make that not be the case."

"It's 2010. We have a black president, an Indian-American governor in Louisiana and a lesbian mayor in Houston," Langbert told another local station, WALB-TV. "This policy is out of touch, and it's time for a change."

Langbert's ouster and efforts to expose what he considers discrimination by the Boy Scouts come at a time when other groups, like the U.S. military, are changing their rules to allow homosexuals to serve openly. The Pentagon ordered military recruiters on Tuesday to begin accepting applications from gay recruits, but an appeals court granted a temporary freeze to the policy change a day later.

Langbert has been an active volunteer with his son's local Pack 70 for the past two years, organizing weekly meetings, camping trips and fundraisers. When he joined, he told the local cubmaster he was openly gay and asked if it would be a problem.

"He said, 'Absolutely not, sign him up,'" Langbert recalled in an interview with Fox.

But after some of the other fathers complained, the Boy Scouts' regional and national leadership backed them up.

"We do have a policy that avowed gays and atheists are not allowed to be a registered leader or member of Boy Scouts of America," Pat Currie, Scout executive with the Circle Ten Council, told CNN. "It's a long-standing policy."

In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that as a private organization, the Boy Scouts of America can set its own membership standards and isn't required to admit homosexuals.

"We understand that this is a societal issue and there will be people who disagree with our policy, and that's fine and we respect their right to do so," Currie also told Fox. "But we just wish and hope that people will respect our right."

Langbert says he wants the Boy Scouts to change its policy, and he also wants his son's local Cub Scouts pack to break away from the national group. The pack has scheduled a meeting next Monday at the local elementary school, to discuss its relationship with the national Boy Scouts organization.

"If we can't change it, then we have to ask ourselves, 'Does our school where my tax dollars go belong in endorsing this organization, allowing recruiting for this organization and providing free facilities for this organization?'" Langbert asked CBS 11. "That's a question for the courts."

For now, Langbert said he's worried about his son.

"It made me feel terrible to think about the devastating effect it would have on my son, to see his father stripped of his leadership role," Langbert told CNN. "It brought tears to my eyes."