In 1990, days before my 20th birthday, the organization told me I was no longer welcome.
Their reason: Scouts must be “morally straight.” They argued that being gay was incompatible with the Scout oath to lead with “honesty, to be clean in your speech and actions, and to be a person of strong character.”
I lost.
Today, there is no law. And yet, the Department of War is threatening to pull military support unless Scouting America changes its membership rules. That is not a legal argument. It is an authoritarian overreach of a private organization.
The core idea of the Supreme Court’s ruling was simple: private associations get to define their own message, and the government cannot force that choice. The Court sided with the Scouts in 2000 because it said the organization had a right to speak through its membership decisions without federal interference. I hated that ruling. I still do. But at least it was consistent.
James Dale outside of the Supreme Court in 2000. —Stephen Boitano—Sygma/Getty Images
Secretary Hegseth announced that Scouting America had agreed to base membership on “biological sex at birth and not gender identity.” Scouting America says that claim is false. Roger Krone, the organization’s president and CEO, was blunt: “We have transgender people in our program, and we’ll have transgender people in our program going forward.” Scouting also refused two demands that would have been existential: reverting its name to Boy Scouts and removing its girl members. It did neither.
Yes, some changes were made to preserve the military partnership. A merit badge for those who “realize the benefits of diversity, equity, inclusion, and ethical leadership” was dropped. And children of active duty military have free registration. The Secretary of War may call those triumphs, but they do not rewrite the soul of Scouting—nor any legal precedent.
Now the federal government is using base access, military installation support, and logistical backing for the National Jamboree as leverage over Scouting’s internal rules. Lawyers call this the Doctrine of Unconstitutional Conditions: the government cannot condition a benefit on the requirement that a person or group waive a constitutional right. The rest of us call it a shakedown.
Scouting America held its name. It continues to welcome girls. According to its own leadership, it is keeping its transgender members, too.
I have been waiting 25 years for Scouting America to get here.
And because of the Supreme Court, Scouting America won’t be going back.
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