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Wesley Murph, a 40-year-old Portlander in the Sabin neighborhood, wants the Boy Scouts of America to end its policy banning gay leaders.
So he's taking an unusual stand.
Friday, he hauled his Christmas tree to his driveway for recycling by a local Boy Scouts troop. He also attached a sign to the tree.
The Boy Scouts struck down its prohibition against openly gay scouts in 2013 after years of foot dragging. It maintains a ban on gay troop leaders, however, going so far as to revoke the charter of a Seattle troop with a gay leader in 2014.
Murph, a marketing professional, has caught the attention of neighbors and passersby with his "gay Christmas tree." He says one woman was so moved by his gesture Saturday that she got out of her car and knocked on his door to tell him.
His real goal, though, is to catch the attention of national leaders in the Boy Scouts organization, he says.
"I want to take a stand in a fun, loving way," Murph says. "I would love nothing more than for someone in the Boy Scouts to see this and say, 'We need to fix this policy.'"
This isn't the first time protests against the Boy Scouts' anti-gay policies have played out over Christmas trees. In 2010, residents in the Laurelhurst neighborhood protested the Boy Scouts' earlier exclusion of gay youths by urging people to recycle their trees elsewhere.
WWeek 2015