GLBT office screens Boy Scout film, opens debate on discrimination

Many Boy Scouts are running around campus this week. Yet their presence has sparked one group on campus to reopen a debate on perceived discriminatory practices from the largest youth organization in the country.

It chose to do so with a movie screening.

On Tuesday, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Support Services Office was screened the award-winning documentary “Scout’s Honor,” a film telling the story of one Scout, 13-year-old Steven Cozza and his fight for equal treatment for all who wish to participate in the Boy Scouts of America.

Cozza helped bring the tolerance organization Scouting For All to national prominence.

After the screening, there was a brief discussion on the matter of the Boy Scouts of America’s discrimination against the GLBT community. GLBT Coordinator Doug Bauder said he wanted to clarify that the screening was not an “us-versus-them confrontation.” He said he hoped instead to have a dialogue with the Boy Scouts of America about the issue.

The organization’s official position, according to the Scouts’ legal issues Web site, www.bsalegal.org, is that all scouts must accept the Declaration of Religious Principle, the Scout Oath and Scout Law.

“The Boy Scouts of America will not employ atheists, agnostics, known or avowed homosexuals or others as professional scouters or in other capacities in which such employment would tend to interfere with the mission of reinforcing the values of the Scout Oath and the Scout Law in young people,” according to the legal issues Web site.

When gay rights in regard to the Scouts was made a legal issue, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale in 2000 that the Boy Scouts of America is a private organization that does have the right to exclude people because of freedom of association given to it and all private organizations by the First Amendment.

The GLBT hosts also wanted to use the screening as an opportunity to highlight the resources at the GLBT Student Support Services, such as the GLBT Library, where numerous other movies and books can be borrowed by the public, IU students and nonstudents, for free.

“I think the reason this is such a big issue is because the Boy Scouts are such a great organization for youth,” said Rene Henry, the library coordinator for the GLBT Support Office. “If they were a terrible organization, no one would care what they do.”

Among the spectators was a gay man and former Scout Michael Moore, who explained that he sees two sides to scouting: the business, policymaking side and the grassroots community side.

“The closer you get to the front lines, the more being gay may become a nonissue,” Moore said.

Beliefs aside, the conversation still centered on a respect for Cozza and his struggle.
“Here’s this straight 13-year-old who really took the Scout Oath seriously,” Henry said. “He had a passion for what he thought was right and fair.”