Confessions of a gay Eagle Scout

Originally published: Aug. 12, 1999

By Todd Camp

The topic of the New Jersey Supreme Court decision last week preventing the Boy Scouts of America from excluding homosexuals came up recently at my local watering hole. I was in mid-rant about how Scouting wasn't meant to be discriminatory, pounding my fist on the bar for dramatic emphasis, when the friend I was talking to suddenly piped up, "You know, I was an Eagle Scout."

Some guy behind us spun on his Cole-Haan heel, snatched his cigarette from his lips, and said, smokily, I was, too. After an informal poll of the folks standing around the pool tables, I'd counted 10 former Eagle Scouts - that's not even counting all the Cubs, Webelos and Scouts who gave up after reaching the Star or Life ranks.

So what attracted all these now openly gay clubgoers to an organization devoted to turning greenhorns into morally upstanding young men?

You can make all the cracks you want about snazzy uniforms or knot-tying and leather crafts, but the truth is that everyone I talked to that night admitted to taking away something special fromtheir scouting experience.

I reached the rank of Eagle at the tender age of 14 ­ a hormonal fashion victim fortunate enough to receive the adolescent treasures of acne, braces and corrective lenses all in the same week. So no, you will not be seeing the photo that ran in my local suburban newspaper at the time.

When I first joined Gulf Coast Council Troop 306, the group had just been taken over by a stern, ex-military man who was disheartened that our only form of exercise was trekking door-to-door hawking tickets to the annual Scout Craft Fair. He was determined to turn us into a lean, mean backpacking troop, so while the other wimps shlepped up to Camp Karankawa to rough it with concrete picnic tables and restrooms, we were walking 10 miles into the woods of some of Texas' finest parks ­ scaring the pants off each other with local legends that made the Blair Witch seem like a bedtime story ­ and sleeping under the stars.

It wasn't always easy. We were idiots at first, living off Pop-Tarts and lugging clunky cassette players into the woods so we could listen to tapes of the Dr. Demento show. But after a few years of learning from our own mistakes, we were dining on shish kebabs and peach cobbler in front of a crackling fire, while the tenderfoots were shivering in their tents eating Swiss Miss instant cocoa powder. I made some the best friends of my life in Scouts. When we pulled up the garters on our knee-high socks and tightened our neckerchief slides, we were united by more than just silly outfits. We were a part of something older and bigger than any of us, and nothing drove the point home to me more than sitting in a throng of thousands of Scouts at the 1981 National Jamboree in Virginia.

Making Eagle Scout remains one of the proudest days of mine and my parents' lives. On reflection, one of the reasons I think I've run into so many gay former Eagle Scouts is that we seem to be fastidious enough to complete the tasks it takes to achieve the rank. After surviving merit badges like Citizenship in the Community, Nation and World, those 10-mile hikes seemed like strolls around the block. And while I may not have known I was gay at the time, there were always hints: My Eagle Scout project was to put on two variety shows for area retirement homes (and my folks said they didn't know).

This argument about allowing gays into Scouting has as much validity as the debate over gays in the military. We've always been in Scouting, and we always will be. Who do you think came up with the Skating merit badge? What's next? Are they gonna add don't ask, don't tell to the initiation ceremony?

There's nothing that would exclude gays in the Scout Oath and Law ­ I know because I still have them memorized. And when Scouting founder Sir Robert Baden-Powell coined the phrase physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight, I don't think it had the same connotation.

I may not be straight, but there's nothing wrong with my morality. I just hope that other gay kids out there get a chance to take advantage of the great things Scouting did for me. Otherwise, the only thing they'll learn to be prepared for is bigotry.