Ryan Andresen is an honor student who has been in the Boy Scouts since he was six years old. He also happens to be an openly gay teen, which is why the Eagle Board of Review refused to approve his Scouts' Eagle application.

Until today, that is.

After appearances on Ellen DeGeneres and Anderson Cooper and 460,000 signatures on a Change.org petition, a California-based Mount Diablo-Silverado Council approved Ryan's status -- in direct defiance of the national organization's policy against gay scouts.

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"It's the first in-your-face (challenge)," Boy Scout district review board chair Bonnie Hazarabedian told Reuters.

While the national office generally approves all district recommendations automatically, the council is expecting some push back in this case.

But that might be besides the point, according to Ryan's father Eric. "It's the message that counts. It's the desire that no other Scout should ever have to go through this."

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h/t Gawker