Boy scouts: inclusion or irrelevance?

I’m a straight Eagle Scout, and I care about the Boy Scouts of America. I want the organization to survive so that I can be an adult leader for my own children someday. I want to take them on their own trips to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, the place where I truly fell in love with backpacking. I want the BSA to be vibrant for my kids like it was for me. But it will fade into irrelevance unless the BSA fully accepts both gay youth and gay adult leaders.

Pascal Tessier joined my troop the year that I led my own patrol of eight boys. He advanced in rank and earned many merit badges along the way. When he was in the eighth grade, he came out to his family about being gay. He felt comfortable telling them about his orientation partly because his older brother, Lucien, had come out a few years before. Lucien and I went to the same high school and led the troop together our senior year. He earned the rank of Eagle the same year that I did—a testament to his commitment to both serving and leading others. (Lucien did not hide his orientation but also did not make it publicly known, so his advancement was not threatened.) Until last month, Pascal would have been denied that honor simply because the organization knows that he is gay—a fact that is irrelevant to his passion for service and leadership.

Fortunately, BSA leaders voted on May 23 to allow openly gay youth in scouting. Pascal can now complete his Eagle project and hopefully earn scouting’s highest rank, which he certainly deserves after bravely standing up for justice.  

This is a fast turnaround. Only last summer, national leaders said that BSA would not reconsider its policy—even though the military was shedding its similar “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy with support from the top brass. BSA leaders were forced to shift course after corporate donors began to withdraw support and public campaigns by activist organizations like Scouts for Equality. Public opinion also played a significant role: 63 percent of Americans wanted the Scouts to allow gay youth, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.  

That strong majority is representative of a more general consensus. The Pew Research Center just released an extensive report about Americans’ attitudes towards gay marriage and homosexuality. In 2003, only 47 percent agreed that homosexuality “should be accepted by society.” Today, a full 60 percent support acceptance. For the first time, Pew found a 51 percent majority of the 1,504 respondents polled were in favor of gay marriage. (Interestingly, 59 percent of those who oppose gay marriage think it is “inevitable.”) Overall “favorable” assessments for gays and lesbians have jumped by 16 percent and 19 percent, respectively, over the past decade.  Society has moved towards acceptance and inclusion. 

Scouting took a small step in that direction last month. But the organization’s survival is at risk as long as it continues to prohibit gay adult leaders. Americans want the BSA to also allow gay leaders, 56 percent to 39 percent. The organization, however, has held onto this discriminatory policy. Partly as a result, 2012 membership in Tiger Cub, Cub and Webelo Scouts dropped by almost 55,000 compared to 2011, accelerating an overall drop of 30 percent since 1999. (Cub Scout families are generally younger and better reflect the incoming generation of parents.) If scouting continues to exclude gay adults from leadership, its decline will hasten. Families will drop out as they see upstanding, gay Scouts earn Eagle, only to be kicked out the minute they turn 18. All that will remain is the ever-shrinking segment of society that endorses homophobia. The organization will miss out on the millions of families who might otherwise join.  

Families like the Canadys of New Bern, North Carolina. Paul and Emily Canady both work in the Episcopal Church; he’s a priest, and she’s a youth minister. They try to live according to Jesus’ teachings and biblical principles, like justice for the oppressed and love for neighbor. Their rambunctious, four-year-old son loves sports and the outdoors. They want to introduce him to Cub Scouts when he starts elementary school in a couple years, but they feel hesitant. Should they allow him to join an organization that preaches exclusion and fear and goes against their deeply-held Christian beliefs?  

The Canadys are far from the only family thinking twice about the Boy Scouts. Ryan McNavage just retired from the challenging job of Cubmaster. He estimates that his suburban Maryland pack lost at least a dozen families this year, maybe as many as 20. Parents withdrew their children because they didn’t want them taught homophobia by an organization that clashed with their values.  

Young families like the Canadys and those who left McNavage’s pack are the lifeblood of Boy Scouts. And polls show that they are the ones most likely to reject homophobia. Their exodus would slash scouting’s ranks, and their future rejections would preclude any future growth. The BSA would cease to be a mainstream organization that teaches the best virtues of manhood to millions of boys. It would be known more for exclusion and religious extremism than for camping and service. It would fade into irrelevance.

Scout troops are also suffering because they’re losing leaders. Not only are there thousands of openly gay parents ready to step in and contribute, there are many straight, adult leaders who don’t want to wear the uniform of an exclusionary organization. Others are forbidden from participating. The Honorable Craig Iscoe served as a Scoutmaster for eight years; parents in his troop still speak about him glowingly. He is an Eagle Scout himself, and both of his sons earned Eagle. Yet even if his troop asked him to lead again, he would have to refuse. And it’s not his sexual orientation that would keep him out. It is scouting’s discrimination. He is a Washington, D.C. Superior Court Judge, and the 2011 Code of Judicial Conduct prohibits him from participating in organizations that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation—organizations like the Boy Scouts of America.  

Finally, there’s my friend Lucien. He’s now 20 and working at a D.C. law firm while finishing college. He’s shown great courage in the fight for equality within scouting—the kind of courage that scouting tries to teach. The BSA must move quickly to allow gay adults like him to serve as leaders. It’s the right thing to do. And it’s the only thing to do if we want the Boy Scouts to thrive in the future. 

Andrew Kragie is a Trinity junior. His biweekly column will begin in the Fall.