Scouting for All

Scouting for All

Formation	1993
Dissolved	circa 2009
Legal status	Dissolved
Purpose	Advocacy/Activism
President	Howard Menzer
Main organ	Board of Directors
Website	Official website (as of April 13, 2019)

Scouting for All was a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization American advocacy organization whose stated purpose was to promote tolerance and diversity within the Boy Scouts of America in the face of its policies requiring members to be heterosexuals who believe in God.

History[edit]

Initially founded in 1993 by Scouter Dave Rice and a committee including Mike Cahn, Bob Smith, Ken McPherson and Don Henry, Scouting for All was relatively inactive for its first few years.^{[citation needed]}

In 1997, the effort was galvanized by a letter to the editor^[which?] written by Steven Cozza, who later went on to earn the rank of Eagle Scout and became a professional bicycle racer. The heterosexual young man criticized the BSA's policies and pointed out potential contradictions^[which?] between those policies and the organization's own governing Scout Oath and Scout Law. He called upon the organization to reexamine its policies and invited others in the organization who agreed with him to contact him so they could all work together to effect the desired policy changes. According to the organization's literature, Dave Rice, Steven Cozza and Steven's father, Scott Cozza were considered the co-founders of the Scouting for All.^{[citation needed]}

The organization appears to have been inactive since around 2009 as evident by the last copyright day on the now offline website and referencing a March 3, 2009 Fox News article as it's Latest News.^[1]

After David Rice stepped down in the mid 2000s leadership passed through several individuals, until Howard Menzer took the position. The organization has been largely dormant since, with a small group of members but will little action. In 2012, Scouts For Equality, was founded by a group of straight Eagle Scouts, including Zach Wahls, a LGBTQ+ activist raised by two lesbian women who later became a Democrat Iowa State Senator from 2019 to 2023. Instead of SFA's strategy of direct protests, SFE lobbied the BSA's corporate partners and used petitions and succeeded in winning inclusion for gay youth in 2013. Scouting For All announced limited protests in the midst of that debate but those did not materialize and their role in the victory was minor if at all. SFE continues to work for inclusion for Gay adults, having merged with the Inclusive Scouting Network to be the lead organization today fighting the BSA's ban on gay adults.^[2]

The Inclusive Scouting Award / Scouting for All Rainbow Knot[edit]

The Inclusive Scouting Award is also called the Rainbow Knot was distributed by Scouting for All, and expresses solidarity with Scouting For All's cause.^[3]

It is not an official BSA patch. It is embroidered on tan cloth patch that mimics the BSA's square knot insignia and is intended worn above the left pocket of the uniform shirt alongside official BSA knots. The square knot incorporates one robe that is purple and silver used on the BSA religious emblems knot and the other has the Rainbow flag.^[4]

The knot was introduced in 2002 by the Inclusive Scouting Network (formerly the Coalitions for Inclusive Scouting) as the Inclusive Scouting Award,^[5] and later distributed by the now-defunct ScoutPride and Scouting for All. The knot was later available through the now dissolved Scouts for Equality.^[4][6]

Unlike the other BSA knot, the Rainbow knot has no requirements for the wearer to earn it. According to Scout for Equality, "you earn it by wearing it" as a form of activism worn by LGBTQ+ members and allies in spite of the fact that BSA has lifted its ban on Scouts since 2013 and gay leaders since 2015. Scouts for Equality claimed that it allows you to "set a positive example and help to create a friendlier and healthier environment for everyone in the Scouting program".^[4]

Reactions[edit]

As stated above, the Inclusive Scouting Award is not an official boy Scouts of America knot and is therefore not sold by BSA. It has led to major debates on online forums with activists and advocates defending their decision to wear it on their uniform as a way to welcome all while other consider it inappropriate in a youth program, exclusionary and not belonging on the uniform. These opponents are often called the Uniform Police in a pejorative way.^[7]

See also[edit]

• Scout's Honor

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Religious Tolerance's Page on the BSA
• Volokh, Eugene Freedom of Expressive Association and Government Subsidies. Stanford Law Review (UCLA) 58: 1919–1968.