Lost In The Wilderness

I was ten and I can vividly remember the afternoon I spent following my Dad around the swimming pool as he scooped out leaves and changed the chlorine, while answering my questions. I had come across his Boy Scout Handbook in the garage and spent the morning pouring through it, reading about knot tying, camping techniques, wilderness survival tips and snake bites. For hours he talked to me about his time in scouting. I was hooked.

When I turned 11, I joined Troop 101 in San Rafael, CA with a few friends I knew from school and many others I didn't. For the next six years, I spent nearly every Monday night attending troop meetings, one weekend a month camping throughout Northern California and one week every summer at Camp Marin Sierra near Lake Tahoe.

In addition to earning my Eagle Scout rank, I spent two weeks backpacking through northern New Mexico at the Boy Scout's treasured Philmont Scout Ranch. We performed hundreds of hours of community service, sang Christmas carols at senior centers, raised money for our own activities, held leadership positions and learned how to respect and enjoy nature. We got in and out of trouble. It was a time I spent memorably with my Dad and my two younger brothers. It was a community of kids I never would have known otherwise through sports or school. Some of my closest friends over the years came from Troop 101. Scouting was a unique outlet and I loved it.

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Sadly, the Boy Scouts of America, an organization that meant so much to me and contributed to much of my growth as a young adult, decided recently to continue its absurd policy of excluding homosexual scouts and adult leaders from Scouting. With this decision, they bring shame to an organization otherwise worthy of the public's praise and support.

In attempting to explain their position, the neanderthal executives at the BSA stated that "The committee’s work and conclusion is that this policy reflects the beliefs and perspectives of the BSA’s members, thereby allowing Scouting to remain focused on its mission and the work it is doing to serve more youth." Unfortunately, the decision accomplishes exactly the opposite. In the same way that Sarah Palin became the story (and distraction) that sunk the Presidential ambitions of John McCain, the BSA are allowing themselves to be defined as an organization committed to discrimination, which overshadows everything else the BSA offers American youth.

In 2000, the Supreme Court affirmed the Boy Scouts' right to organize privately with this policy in place. Tellingly, the decision was based in part on the observation by the Court that opposition to homosexuality was an "expressive message" of the BSA - in other words discrimination against gays was part of "its mission". I must have been absent for that Monday night Scout meeting when we all swore an oath to not associate with gay people. I must not have been paying attention when the BSA defined for me what it means to be "morally straight" - the final words of the Boy Scout Oath.

In seeking to move on from the issue that the BSA themselves created, to "remain focused on its mission", the executive leadership in Irving, Texas continue to dishonor their members - both past and present - and all that Scouting should represent for every kid in America. For me, Scouting's "expressive message" was many things, none of which related to one's sexuality.

The BSA's conservative apologists cling to the tired notion that the BSA need to protect children from sexual abuse. That defense is not only insulting to homosexuals - suggesting that all gay men are somehow predisposed to sexually abusing children - it is woefully ignorant of the myriad of sexual abuse scandals that have centered around seemingly heterosexual adults (from Jerry Sandusky to the Catholic Church). For those understandably worried about the safety of their sons, they should insist that the BSA focus its energies on preventing any adult - gay or straight - from being in a situation alone with a child, a policy that protects both children from abuse and adults from frivolous accusations.

For conservatives who believe that opposition to homosexuality is just part of the fabric of their own political platform, they ought to wake up from their slumber and look at a calendar. In 2010, one of conservative's legal champions and the attorney most credited with sweeping George W. Bush into office penned The Conservative Case For Gay Marriage. Theodore Olson, the former Solicitor General of the United States, then went on to successfully remind California voters and the 9th Circuit Court that discrimination by any means - even by a simple majority vote in the form of Prop 8 - is still discrimination and illegal. Imagine that.

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Perhaps the executives in Irving should spend more time with actual scouts and scout leaders and less time leading two-year studies that only reaffirm the smallness of their characters and the fear inherent in their politics. What they might realize is that thirteen year-old Scouts are focused on merit badges, learning CPR and First Aid, and how to properly rescue a drowning swimmer - a skill that came in handy for me one summer (and handier for the drowning seven year-old boy). They will find fathers dedicated to teaching kids about leadership and citizenship and enjoying time spent with their children. If they get out of Irving, they will find real values that ought to inspire them.

But what they won't find in Troops across the country is a gay witch hunt.

It's time that the BSA finally live up to its member's "expressive message" and get "focused on its mission" - our mission. Continue to be the place that kids of all backgrounds can feel comfortable, grow into productive citizens and come into their own - whatever that may be.

And for goodness sake, don't make me think twice when my own sons find my Boy Scout Handbook and ask me when they can join. The scouting experience is too important to their future.

- Ted Kniesche
Troop 101, Eagle Scout, 1996