Pressure on Boy Scout rules, from Petaluma man and others, led to change in gay policy

One Petaluma native’s crusade to pressure the Boy Scouts of America to change its policy banning openly gay participants marked a major victory this week as the national group voted to lift those restrictions for troops affiliated with a secular organization.|

One Petaluma native’s crusade to pressure the Boy Scouts of America to change its policy banning openly gay participants marked a major victory this week as the national group voted to lift those restrictions for troops affiliated with a secular organization.

While the policy still gives faith-affiliated troops the right to ban openly gay leadership, the decision, on the heels of a policy last year that removed restrictions on openly gay youth, still marks a significant evolution in the Scouts’ treatment of homosexuality, said Steven Cozza, who as a teenager co-founded the gay rights scouting advocacy group Scouting for All.

“It’s crazy how long it took. But it’s also crazy to think in 1997 how different it was,” said Cozza, who reached the rank of Eagle Scout during his youth in Petaluma and today works as a real estate agent in the region.

It was on Monday that Boy Scouts of America announced the change to its leadership policy. It was described as one of balance, reflecting the desire to lift the restrictions while respecting the beliefs of faith-based organizations opposed to homosexuality.

“For far too long, this issue has divided and distracted us. Now it’s time to unite behind our shared belief in the extraordinary power of scouting to be a force for good in a community and in the lives of its youth members,” said Robert Gates, the national president for Boy Scouts of America and a former U.S. secretary of defense.

The change was effective immediately. The removal of a restriction on openly gay youth took effect in 2014, and applied to all troops.

Previous to the changes, openly gay scouts or leaders could be barred or expelled from the organization, along with troops that defied the ban.

John Carriger, president of the Boy Scouts’ Redwood Empire Council, which includes over 100 troops and 2,000 scouts in the North Bay, said the change brought the national organization into better alignment with the scouting community in the Bay Area and the East Coast.

Still, the need to comply with the national framework compelled the chapter and many like it to request leaders to keep their sexual orientation a private matter. “We just simply do not discriminate,” Carriger said.

Scouting groups around the country are now looking to the potential fallout from religious organizations following the decision, Carriger said. Groups like the Mormon church, the Catholic church and Southern Baptists were among the most vocal in opposing the decision to allow openly gay scouts, and are also the single biggest sources of financial support for the Boy Scouts.

“I’m sure they will want to be heard,” he said.

Cozza said he was drawn to the issue of discrimination based on sexual orientation after learning the fate of Robin Reed, a gay Petaluma High School sophomore who committed suicide in 1995. While he never met Reed, Cozza said he maintained a sense that the outcome could have been prevented had Reed been given the right kind of support.

“If this policy had been changed in 1995, and gay marriage were legal in 1995, and we had gotten as far as we’ve gone today, I believe in my heart Robin would still be alive,” he said.

Cozza went on to co-found Scouting For All, along with a gay-straight alliance group at the high school.

Scouting for All obtained nonprofit status and continued to grow in the coming years, though Cozza said his own involvement waned when he moved to Europe as a professional bicycle racer after high school. He credited those involved in the group and others like it for maintaining the momentum that has helped lead to the recent policy changes.

“It would be great if they (the Boy Scouts) could elaborate on that decision and use it as an opportunity to teach kids to be a better person,” he said.

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