Growing up in Seattle, Geoff McGrath learned how the Boy Scouts of America can be very empowering to a young kid. Getting out on the trails in the National Parks abundant in the Pacific Northwest, McGrath learned the important skills and attributes espoused in the Scout Law and Oath. He went on to earn Eagle Scout, and as an adult, became a software engineer, has a 20 year marriage, and eventually became the leader of a BSA troop. When McGrath’s church Rainier Beach United Methodist formed Troop 98, they asked McGrath to lead it.
The story doesn’t have a happy ending, at least not yet, because as you might have guessed McGrath is openly gay. And when word got back to the Chief Seattle Council of the BSA that McGrath was doing an interview with NBC News, McGrath was let go by the BSA.
The Scouts, if you will recall, just last year finally changed their membership policy that bans gay youth and adults which led to tragic stories about scouts such as Ryan Andresen http://www.dailykos.com/... who did everything to earn Eagle Scout but was awaiting final approval when the BSA held up his nomination as he aged out of eligibility. The ban gave cover for treating gay youth as less than others, and this story caught on and showed how harmful the ban had become. There were a few stories about ousted adult leaders, but most of the focus was rightly on the more vulnerable kids.
Thankfully a year ago, they changed the policy, but only for youth http://www.dailykos.com/.... Adults were still banned. Another slap in the face.
Just this week, we have what is being reported as the first instance of an adult being ousted as a BSA leader since the youth policy changed last year. McGrath’s case has shown that the new policy is essentially one we are all painfully familiar with: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Let me be the first to coin the acronym BSADADT.
As soon as the BSA heard he was talking to NBC News, his gayness became an issue. It wasn’t when he helped charter the troop. It wasn’t an issue when the troop became so popular that they added a cub scout unit. No, those things were OK, as long as McGrath kept shut up about his orientation. It wasn’t a problem that he was gay when he took the troop to go camping at Mt. Rainier, or that he was helping the church provide after-school activities in one of Seattle’s most diverse and economically challenged neighborhoods. But when McGrath was talking publicly, honestly about himself, that’s when it became a problem.
I’m not sure what those initial interviews were about, but sadly, NBC News ended up with a scoop about the first openly gay BSA leader ousted since the new policy was put into effect instead of whatever other story they were trying to write. http://www.nbcnews.com/...
And we all now get a retread of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell debate. Do we really need to have this debate again? Come on Boy Scouts of America, number 1 in the Scout Law is “Trustworthy”. How can someone be trustworthy if they are not honest? Honest about themselves? And don’t get me started on that whole “help other people at all times” schtick if you don’t really mean it, because BSADADT does not help anyone.
References:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
http://www.nwcn.com/...
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/...
http://seattletimes.com/...