Features

SANTA BARBARA — A Boy Scout executive was stripped of his Eagle Scout status and fired by the Boy Scouts of America National Council 10 days after he publicly admitted he was a homosexual, his attorney said. 

Len Lanzi, Boy Scouts Los Padres Council executive director, worked for the scouting organization 14 years before he was terminated by mail Thursday. 

“We plan to pursue all legal remedies available to him,” said Lanzi’s attorney, Steven Serratori, whose Century City firm specializes in employment law. 

“I think it’s fair to say that everybody is surprised at the arrogance of the Boy Scouts,” Serratori said.  

“To think in this day and age that they think they can fire someone based on their sexual orientation. It’s arrogant.” 

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last summer upholding the Boy Scouts’ right to exclude gay members does not apply to its employees, the lawyer said. 

Messages for the Los Padres Boy Scout Council were not returned Sunday. 

Lanzi, whose territory includes Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, is believed to be the highest-ranking Boy Scout executive to publicly acknowledge his homosexuality since the Supreme Court ruling in June. 

Los Padres Boy Scout board members told the Santa Barbara News-Press their options were limited because of the national council’s policy on gays. 

“We could contradict the national Boy Scout policy, and possibly risk the whole council being decommissioned, or we can go along with firing him,” said Karl Eberhard, a member of the Los Padres Boy Scouts board. 

“I maintain that the whole thing is completely idiotic,” he added.