The 'First' Openly Gay Eagle Scout, with Pascal Tessier
As a teenager, Pascal Tessier found himself in the right place at the right time to make an impact for gay inclusion.
In this episode of the Morally Straight Podcast, I’m talking to Pascal Tessier. During a whirlwind few years of his teenage life, Tessier became a key spokesman for gay inclusion in the Boy Scouts of America.
Why it matters: Despite coming from a inclusive troop in the Washington, D.C., area, Tessier partnered with Scouts for Equality to advocate for an end to the BSA’s ban on gay youth in 2013. Just months after that policy ended, Tessier became an eagle scout, and helped usher in the later policy change for gay adults in 2015.
In my conversation with Tessier, we talked about:
- The uniquely accepting family and scout troop that he grew up in
- How he briefly became the face of the campaign for gay inclusion
- What he makes of his unofficial title of the 'first' openly gay eagle scout
🎧 P.S. If you’d rather get these episodes directly in your podcast feed, you can! Find Morally Straight on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and PocketCasts.
📚 And if you want to learn more about this history, you can pre-order the Morally Straight book here.
