a little more than two weeks after the u.s. supreme court heard marriage equality the law of the land, we re seeing more steps on the march towards progress. the pentagon is putting the finishing touches on a plan to allow transgender people to seven. ash carter acknowledged the similar don t ask, don t tell policy, there are already plenty of transgender people serving. he said, we have transgender soldiers and marines being hurt by an inconsistent approach. and the boy scouts of america moved to accept gay troop leaders, saying this will allow charter organizations to celebrity troop leaders without regard to sexual orientation.
hurt by an inconsistent approach. and the boy scouts of america moved to accept gay troop leaders saying in a statement, quote, this resolution will allow charter organizations to select adult leaders without regard to sexualor jen orientation. the lbgt community faces the most harassment as kids and teamers. a survey last year found that 70% of lbgt students were harassed, while 55% of students said they were harassed because of gender expression. still, there is no federal law that explicitly prohibits the bullying of kids based on real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. senator al franken is trying to do something to change that. joining me now is senator al franken. democrat from minnesota. senator, great to have you here. i don t think anyone would look at the situation that so many lgbt kids face in school and think, well, that s fine that these kids are getting harassed. some are being so horribly hurt
moved to accept gay troop leaders, saying this will allow charter organizations to celebrity troop leaders without regard to sexual orientation. the lbgt community faces the most harassment as kids and teamers. a survey last year found that 70% of lbgt students were harassed, while 55% of students said they were harassed because of gender expression. there is no law that prohibits the bullying of kids based on real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. senator al franken is trying to do something to change that. joining me now is senator al franken. great to have you here. i don t think anyone would look at the situation that so many lbgt kids face in the school and think that s fine that these kids are getting harassed some are so hurt by bullying they are killing themselves. the question is whether this is
what would you say to those parents? well the thing is there s been gay and lesbian participants in scouting since the beginning. the only question right now is whether or not those participants can participate in an equal way with everyone else or whether they continue to be at jeopardy of being outed or somehow being ashamed of their status rather than being full and equal in dignity and in service. that s the only question. it s time to move beyond the idea that being in the closet or that is actually the preferred way for people to be in society. do you think this change will be inevitable in terms of allowing gay troop leaders to be part of the boy scouts? because a point was made when they allowed the gay scouts two years ago, that at some point a scout will turn 18 and may want to volunteer as a gay troop
her trustworthiness numbers and people who say they believe she s honest but so far i think, you know while these are very important questions to be raised, i don t think it s necessarily hurting her on the ground. okay alex seitz-wald thanks so much for the report. appreciate that. up next boy scouts officials are now considering a call from the group s president to end the ban on gay troop leaders. up next, new reaction from a former boy scout leader who was ousted because he s gay. also ahead in washington during my brother s time republicans spent too much money. jeb bush offers the toughest criticism yet of his brother s presidency. more on his comments. they are part of today s first read coming up. and developing now, crews in california are working 24 hours a day to clean up that huge oil spill. why it could take months to determine what happened. it s one of the stories we re following around the news nation. join our conversation online. you can find the team