CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, Calif. — A 17-year-old high school senior from this hillside area just east of Oakland, Calif., has been told by the Boy Scouts that he is not eligible to be awarded the rank of Eagle Scout because he is gay.

(Editor’s note: Straight ally and activist Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout raised by two lesbian moms in Iowa, will be speak in San Diego on Sunday. Click HERE to read SDGLN’s article.)

The Boy Scouts of America has lost its largest corporate donor, Intel, which announced Friday that it will no longer support the group until it vows to stop discriminating against gay people.

(Editor’s note: San Diego Gay & Lesbian News has an exclusive local media partnership with QNotes in presenting special LGBT community-oriented coverage of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, which will be Sept. 4-6 in Charlotte, N.C.)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Delegates and guests to the 2012 Democratic National Convention rose to their feet to welcome Zach Wahls to the stage. The young man and straight ally became famous across the nation after standing up at the Iowa General Assembly in support of his two mothers during that state's debate over gay marriage.

At least six Eagle Scouts from across the country have returned their Eagle Scout medal to the Boy Scouts of America in response to the organization’s refusal to reverse its long-standing policy against gay scouts and gay and lesbian scout leaders.

Rob Breymaier, an Oak Park, Ill., resident, and Dr. Mark Varnum, from Bangor, Maine, are the latest Eagle Scouts to return their medals in protest of the BSA anti-gay policy.

Breymaier said he has lost hope that the 102-year-old organization would “do the right thing.”