NJ transgender boy to rejoin Boy Scouts

NEW JERSEY (FOX 5 NY) - “I’m happy that I got back in,” Joe Maldonado, 8, told FOX 5 NY after learning the Boy Scouts of America had changed its admittance policy and would allow him to return.

For more than 100 years, the BSA had determined gender based on an applicant's birth certificate. On Monday night, the national organization announced via its website that the policy had been changed. It would now determine enrollment in its boys-only programs on the gender a child or parent lists on the application to become a scout. 

If a transgender child identifies as a boy, the organization and all its affiliate groups are required to allow that child to join the club.

Last year, Maldonado was kicked out of his Cub Scout troupe in Secaucus, New Jersey because he was born a girl.

"The mothers were having issues with me being there because I was a girl. It sounds stupid to me. The kids, its none of their fault," said Maldonado.

"He just wants to be accepted and for people to see him like any other boy," Christy Maldonado, Joe's mother, told FOX 5 NY.

"All transgenders should be accepted for who they are… and be loved," said Joe.