August 21, 2012
BSA National Executive Board
1325 Walnut Hill Lane
PO Box 152079
Irving, Texas 75015-2079
1325 Walnut Hill Lane
PO Box 152079
Irving, Texas 75015-2079
To the National Executive Board
of the Boy Scouts of America:
I really did not want to write
this letter. In fact, I have been putting off this letter for over a decade now,
but the board’s recent affirmation of its discriminatory policy has finally
convinced me to do the right thing.
The problem really began my last
couple of years of high school, the last few years of my Scouting career, as I
slowly realized that I did not believe in a higher power. Though I would not be
willing to apply the term “atheist” to myself until years later, I knew that my
beliefs would not be welcome in the Boy Scouts. It did not seem fair to me that
I would be considered an immoral person simply because I did not believe in a
god. I felt like a good, ethical person, and Boy Scouts had helped instill
those very ethics into me. I couldn’t see how my religion, or rather lack
thereof, could change that. I knew that I should stand up for my beliefs.
But… I had joined Cub Scouts when
I was seven with the express goal of becoming an Eagle Scout. Scouting had
become such a big, such an important and meaningful part of my life, that I couldn’t bear to lose it. So I hid my beliefs away, and
hoped no one would ask.
I earned my Eagle badge in July
1999 and was officially awarded it the following November. Around this time, I
became aware of the court case involving James Dale which, I was surprised to
learn, started in my own council: Monmouth Council, New Jersey. The following
June, when the decision was handed down, I was working as the Nature Director
at Quail Hill Scout Reservation, Monmouth Council’s official Cub Scout camp (my
fourth and final summer working there.) Prior to this, I was unaware of the
BSA’s policy against homosexuals, perhaps because I could not imagine why in
the world such a policy would be in place. Though it did not affect me
personally, this policy still struck me as a gross injustice. I heard a few
unsubstantiated stories of Eagle Scouts returning their badges in protest, and
I knew that I should join them. I knew that I should stand in solidarity with
those unfairly excluded, and renounce an organization that, to me, appeared to
be betraying its own core teachings.
But… the Scouts had given me so
much. Leadership skills, when I am anything but a natural leader; confidence in
my abilities, when I am too often retiring and full of self-doubt; a love of
the outdoors; innumerable skills that I continue to use in my everyday life;
and so much more that I can’t even begin to list. And when I finally earned my
Eagle Scout badge, it was (and continues to be) one of the proudest
achievements of my life. Deep down, I couldn’t bear to give it up. So I didn’t.
Oh, I would talk about how unfair the Scouts’ policies were. I wrote college
essays, blog posts, and would discuss it strongly whenever it was brought up,
but I also made excuses for my continued association. “It’s such a good
organization, and can provide so many valuable things.” “They’re on the wrong
side of history, and will realize it sooner or later.” “Their actions don’t
affect what I achieved.” Somehow, I thought that maybe if I just waited long
enough, the Boy Scouts would come to their senses. So I kept my badge, and the
title of Eagle Scout.
The announcement of July 17,
therefore, was a great disappointment to me. A decision was made in a “secret
council” – which seems hardly trustworthy – to strongly reaffirm its
exclusionary policies. I realize that on some level this must have been hard
for you, for all of you. After all, some of the BSA’s most major donors and
supporters are religious organizations with strong stances against
homosexuality and, naturally, atheism. The Scouts would stand to lose that
support and a great deal of money if they were to reverse these policies. While
this may be true, it pains me to see that the National Executive Board is not
brave enough to choose the right way over the easy way.
In a way, then, I want to thank
you. I want to thank you all for reminding me what it really means to be a
Scout, and what values I should truly be holding dear, for I too was taking the
easy way. It was too hard to give up something so important to me, which had so
much of an impact on making me that man I am today. Unfortunately, I can no
longer call myself an Eagle Scout when that stands for an organization saying
that I am immoral because I always try to do the right thing simply because
it’s the right thing to do, and not because a deity told me to. I can no longer
claim to be proud of an organization that says that two consenting adults
having a loving, caring relationship that is a danger to absolutely no one is
wrong for such insultingly vague and rationalized reasons as being “unclean”
and “not morally straight” just because of their gender. I can no longer in any
way stand with an organization that so blatantly goes against its own professed
values, values that I try to live my life by.
I really didn’t want to write
this letter. I wanted the Boy Scouts to be better than this. Unfortunately, you
have shown that not to be the case. Thus, it is with a heavy heart that I
return to you one of my prized possessions, my Eagle Scout badge and medal.
Hopefully, you will one day be trustworthy enough, kind enough, and brave
enough to do the right thing. When that day finally comes – and I do hold out
hope that it will – I will once again be proud to call myself an Eagle Scout.
Sincerely,
Robert N. Vary
Former Senior Patrol Leader,
Troop 358, Freehold, NJ
Former Den Chief, Pack 152,
Jackson, NJ
Former Brotherhood Member, Order
of the Arrow, Na Tsi Hi Lodge 71
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