National organization lends hand to student effort

by Jen Strawn
For The Post

The Boy Scouts of America, which was started in 1910, vows to build character in today’s youth. The shared belief in a duty to God and traditional family values remain essential to its mission.

OUT SCOUTS, a local Ohio University student organization against the exclusion of homosexuals and atheists in scouting, believes the BSA has lost sight of its goal.

“The entire purpose of the BSA is to educate and teach our kids values,” said Ryan Beam, OUT SCOUTS director and OU sophomore. “By condoning discrimination, they are essentially teaching the youth it’s okay to discriminate.”

Sexual orientation has nothing to do with upholding traditional family values, Beam said, but the BSA disagrees.

BSA spokesman Gregg Shields said the BSA feels that, “avowed homosexuals do not uphold these values,” and therefore are not permitted in leadership positions.

According to the Supreme Court’s 2000 ruling in ••Boy Scouts of America v. Dale,•• the BSA can exclude homosexuals and atheists. The First Amendment’s right to expressive association protects the BSA.

“No one is forced to join the Boy Scouts,” Shields said. “So it is totally appropriate to have these values. Without them we’d only be a camping club.”

Beam said OUT SCOUTS’ goal is not to degrade the scouting experience but to reverse the BSA’s policy on discrimination.

OUT SCOUTS, which was founded last month as a project of the campus group DEFINE, hopes that by holding petition drives and meetings with local troops, the local council will choose to ignore the BSA’s policy on discrimination.

OUT SCOUTS attempted to meet with the BSA’s Hock-Hocking Assistant District Executive, Max Bucey, to discuss the reversal of the policy against homosexuals and atheists, but the members’ efforts failed, Beam said. Bucey not only refused to meet with OUT SCOUTS but also reacted in an unprofessional manner, Beam said.

“He was very unprofessional … he acted in a way that a Boy Scout official should not, especially towards another adult leader,” Beam said.

Beam said Bucey was to be their main contact, and without his help OUT SCOUTS must find each troop individually. Records for the BSA are private, so finding each troop will not be easy, Beam said.

Bucey said Beam tried to contact him a few weeks ago, but he does not feel he acted in an unprofessional manner.

“He called me at home, and I told him that I couldn’t really talk with him on the policy,” he said. “I told him he would need to speak with the scouting executive Jeff Schwab.”

The council has a hierarchy, and as the official spokesperson, all inquiries about policy must go through the scouting executive, Schwab said.

Bucey said that as the assistant district executive he cannot discuss Boy Scout policy.

“Beam must have been misinformed and didn’t really understand what my job was,” Bucey said.

Beam also claims city troops are in violation of Athens City Code 3.07.62 Section B on discrimination in public accommodations. However, city prosecutor Bill Biddlestone said the code actually deals with proprietors, not the groups themselves.

“The code basically states that proprietors cannot turn people away due to their race, religion or sexual orientation,” Biddlestone said.

So far, OUT SCOUTS has sponsored one petition drive, which yielded 61 signatures in two hours, Beam said. The group expects to hold another drive at University Mall on East State Street, he said.

“We haven’t gotten the approval form (to hold an event at University Mall) back yet, but there shouldn’t be any problems,” Beam said.

The organization, although working locally, also is working with Scouting for All, a national organization with the same goal as OUT SCOUTS.

“We’re almost like an extension of them,” he said. “We’re just basically bringing an issue to light in an area where it hasn’t really been addressed before.”

Scouting for All’s cofounder, Scott Cozza, said Beam and OUT SCOUTS allies with them through Scouting for All’s Alliance for Human Rights, which allows groups and individuals across the country to get involved.

“Compassion is the most effective way to reach people,” Cozza said. “And OUT SCOUTS is trying to do that just that.”