Michael Betsch, CNSNews.com
Friday, Aug. 24, 2001

The group Scouting for All (S4A) has scheduled rallies around the nation through Saturday to protest last year's 5-4 Supreme Court decision that allowed the BSA to prohibit homosexuals from participating in its organization. This is the second year the group has organized such rallies, which so far are not drawing large crowds.

On Monday, Steven and Scott Cozza - a son and his father who say they founded Scouting for All - protested at the epicenter of the Scouting world, the National Council in Dallas.

A S4A press announcement, in describing the Dallas event, said it would include "a cadre of Dallas notables ... condemning the Boy Scouts of America's policy to discriminate based upon sexual orientation and religion." According to one reporter, only 12 protesters showed up.

Another S4A anti-BSA rally on Monday in Montgomery, Ala., attracted only seven protesters, a BSA official reported. The BSA's Housatonic Council in Connecticut said one protester showed up in front of its office building, while the Hartford Courant counted about a dozen protesters outside the Connecticut Rivers Council.

But the S4A is clear about its intentions. The group's Web site says S4A believes in Scouting. It further states that an estimated 40 percent of its volunteers were Eagle Scouts, and it said that number is increasing. However, S4A notes, "We just don't believe in the BSA's current policy of discrimination against gay youth and adults and atheists."

Protest Campaign Expands

Steven Cozza, the subject of PBS documentary called "Scouts Honor," is a 16-year-old Eagle Scout who has been protesting the BSA's anti-homosexual stance since he was 12 years old. A statement on the S4A Web site says, "Steven is not gay but does not feel the need to tell those who make fun of him that he is not gay, because in his heart he believes that if he were gay, he'd be proud of being gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual."

Cozza's father, Scott, was banned by the BSA for advocating the inclusion of homosexuals in the organization. The elder Cozza now works as an independent HIV health education consultant and advocate of changes in prison health care.

The stated purpose of S4A's 2001 national event "is to get the Boy Scouts of America to rescind its discriminatory policy against gay youth and adults as well as atheists." The theme of this year's event "is to acknowledge, recognize, and embrace gay youth with an empowering message." S4A describes its nationwide protest as a vehicle "to give voice to this healing message."

S4A launched its assault on the BSA during its first annual rally last year, shortly after the U.S. Supreme court handed down its ruling upholding the BSA's right, as a private organization, to set its own membership rules.

It was that same 2000 protest that led to the creation of Scouting for All's national campaign, the group said.

The group's strategy, set forth in an S4A press release, includes pressuring organizations, such as the United Way, not to fund Boy Scout chapters; urging schools, churches and governments to keep Boy Scout meetings off their premises; and inviting more people - inside and outside of the BSA - to speak in favor of "justice for all."

Further, S4A has a broad range of pro-homosexual goals, which include drawing media attention on a national level.

S4A's message for the BSA is that it will not give up. To drive home the message that the BSA's policy "hurts youth, especially gay youth," S4A said, "We must create a society that embraces them."

That includes encouraging Gay-Straight Alliances in every high school in America, the group said.

Leave the Uniform at Home

Gavin Grooms, executive director of Save Our Scouts, said it's fine for everyone to voice an opinion. But, he added, "I think it's important that each side's opinion be properly voiced so that people can make logical and clear decisions as to which direction they'd like to see their family and country go."

Grooms said he learned that Scouting for All was actually founded several years before Steven Cozza became involved with the group. "So, the concept that Scouting for All was co-founded by this young man is, perhaps, not completely accurate - let's put it that way."

Grooms also said he doesn't like the idea of anyone - whether he is in Boy Scouts now or formerly - protesting while wearing the uniform.

"We don't," he said. "We should respect the rules and respect the national Boy Scouts, and all Boy Scouts, whether adult or youth, by making our point clear, but keeping our uniforms at home."

Grooms said his group was planning a national day of support for the Scouts. He said he would expect strong support for such an event.

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