Why did I challenge the Boy Scouts anti-gay policy? Because I am a loyal scout

When the BSA appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, I continued the fight — and ultimately lost in a 5-4decision on June 28, 2000. The majority ruled that it was within the BSA’s First Amendment rights to exclude gay members if it thought our presence would undermine its mission. In other words, the nation’s highest court ruled that the Scouts could legally enshrine bigotry into the Scout Oath and Law.

The ruling contradicted all I’d learned in my years of Scouting. As a Scout, I couldn’t accept it. So I’m still fighting. …

If sexual issues are not brought up in the Scouting environment — and in my experience, they never were, until an outside party publicized my homosexuality — that’s all the more reason that it should not matter if some members happen to be gay. It has no impact on their ability to earn an American heritage merit badge, join the Order of the Arrow or achieve lifelong Eagle Scout status.

Now the Scouts and the nation are revisiting the matter again, and the BSA has still made no change. It just delayed a decision until May, at its annual national meeting. Through its inaction, the Boy Scouts of America is choosing to become increasingly irrelevant. With each passing day, the Scouts will continue to lose members, sponsors and funding because people are choosing to disassociate themselves from an organization that tells a boy he is immoral, unworthy or unacceptable simply because his is gay.