8-Year-Old Transgender Boy Asked To Leave Cub Scouts

SECAUCUS, N.J. (AP) — The family of an 8-year-old New Jersey boy says he was kicked out of Cub Scouts because he is transgender, a move that could open a new front in the debate over discrimination in Scouting.

Joe Maldonado joined Pack 87 in Secaucus in October and was asked to leave about a month later, according to The Record.

“I’m way more angry than sad,” Joe said in a story published Tuesday. “My identity is a boy. If I was them, I would let every person in the world go in. It’s right to do.”

Joe was born a girl but has identified as male for more than a year. His mother, Kristie Maldonado, said Joe is accepted as a boy at school and that it was complaints from parents — not Joe’s fellow Scouts — that led to his ouster.

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