James Dale, the plaintiff in the 2000 Supreme Court case Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, writes about the reasons he challenged the Scouts.
And the letter from the Scouts revoking his membership that set things in motion:
With this one letter, the work to which I had dedicated more than half of my young life came completely undone. I was devastated. Yet, it was precisely the sense of leadership, respect, equality and community that the Scouts had instilled in me that would not allow me to accept this injustice, done not just to me but to countless other young gay people who had found a home in the Boy Scouts of America. Not fighting my expulsion from the Scouts would have been a betrayal of all I'd learned in the Scouts….
…If sexual issues are not brought up in the Scouting environment — and in my experience, they never were, until an outside party publicized my homosexuality — that's all the more reason that it should not matter if some members happen to be gay. It has no impact on their ability to earn an American heritage merit badge, join the Order of the Arrow or achieve lifelong Eagle Scout status.
Why did I challenge the Boy Scouts' anti-gay policy? Because I am a loyal Scout. [wapo]
