The Boy Scouts of America celebrate 107 years of existence on National Boy Scout Day Wednesday, just a week after updating their policy on transgender youth; now allowing their participation.
We met EJ Campisi on the basketball court in Bedford where he is just one of the boys. Like his other basketball-loving friends, he had a dream.
"I thought that we could be in Boy Scouts like the other boys and we should do it," he said. "I wanted to be [a scout] but we were too busy. So, we couldn't do it."
That was what EJ's mother, Jennifer, told him. It was one of those little white lies a mother tells their child to protect them.
"I don't want to crush his little spirit," Jennifer said. "I don't want to make him feel that anything is wrong with him because there is nothing wrong with him."
The truth was that the Boy Scouts had a rule against EJ joining. He may be one of the boys on the court, but his birth certificate lists him as a girl.
"Sometimes he doesn't want to talk about it because he just wants to be like every other kid," Jennifer said.
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Then, Boy Scouts announced they were updating their policy to allow all children who identify as male. Just hours after the announcement, to Jennifer’s surprise, two separate calls came from troop leaders inviting EJ to join scouting.
“It feels like pretty cool and special that they want me to be in it because Boy Scouts is really cool," EJ said.
Those who know EJ said if you just stop and watch him with his friends and family, he already exemplifies all the characteristics of the Boy Scout Law.
The Boy Scout Law reads: “A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.”
Of those attributes, his support system focuses specifically on brave, saying at 10 years old he can’t appreciate just how brave he has been. What matters to him is that he has a chance to be like his friends.
"It's nice so that you can do cool stuff and be like other boys," EJ said.
But, for his mother who had to protect her son, this opportunity means so much more.
"Things are changing and just like the Boy Scouts have shown us, things are changing," Jennifer said.
