Monday, April 24, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A • Page 7
U.S. Supreme Court to hear discrimination case against Boy Scouts
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — It took James Dale 11 years to rise through the ranks of the Boy Scouts. It took the Boy Scouts only 11 days to kick him out after learning he was gay.
This week, Dale's ongoing court battle with the Boy Scouts reaches the U.S. Supreme Court.
Dale was a Cub Scout at 8, a Boy Scout at 11, a member of the Order of the Arrow at 13 and an Eagle Scout at 17. His mom was a den mother. His dad was a scouting commissioner. At 18, Dale became an assistant scoutmaster.
But the Boy Scouts of America expelled him in 1990 after discovering that he was co-president of Rutgers University's gay and lesbian organization.
James Anderson, faculty adviser to the group and Dale's friend, said the expulsion was a big setback for Dale.
("Scouting) was really so central to his life, to his growing up, to becoming a man," Anderson said. "They slapped him for such a core aspect of his being."
Dale struck back with a 1992 lawsuit accusing the Boy Scouts of discrimination. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case Wednesday.
The Boy Scouts of America says homosexuality contradicts its oath requiring scouts to be "morally straight." That policy has withstood numerous court challenges, said Gregg Shields, national spokesman for the organization.
"We've always taught traditional
family values." Shields said. "That goes back to our founding in 1910. An avowed homosexual would not be a role model for those values."
But Evan Wolfson, who will argue Date's case before the Supreme Court, said an organization that claims to be open to all boys and that works in partnership with public schools cannot discriminate against any young boy or young man because of his sexual orientation.
Dale, now 29, lives in New York City and is the advertising director of a magazine for people who are HIV-positive. He declined an interview through his representatives at the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.
In public comments through the years, Dale has spoken highly of his scouting experience, saying it
instilled in him the self-confidence and fortitude he now needs in his legal battle. But he has no good words about the organization's treatment of homosexuals.
In a 1998 interview with The Advocate, a national gay and lesbian news magazine. Dale said the Boy Scouts spend valuable resources defending its anti-gay policy.
"There are often these drives for kids to go to camp who can't afford it." Dale said. "If they stopped suing people for being gay, they could afford to send a lot more people to camp."
Dale, who changed his name before his dispute with the Boy Scouts, is the younger of two sons of Gerald Dick, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, and his wife, Doris.
"If they stopped suing people for being gay, they could afford to send a lot more people to camp."
As a student at a military high
James Dale
former assistant scoutmaster
school, "I remember hoping to God that I wouldn't be gay," Dale told The New York Times in 1922. "It wasn't part of my big picture."
Rutgers offered Dale a new vista. His friendship with a gay man the summer between his freshman and sophomore years helped Dale accept his homosexuality. He joined the campus gay and lesbian organization and became co-president after
three months.
Dale attended a day-long conference in 1990 about the struggles of lesbian and gay adolescents. A story about the conference in the July 8, 1990, Newark Star-Ledger quoted Dale describing his difficult path toward accepting his homosexuality.
The story was not well-received at the Monmouth Council of the Boy Scouts, which 16 months earlier had made Dale an assistant scoutmaster of Troop 73 in Matawan, N.J. Soon after, council executive James W. Kay revoked Dale's registration.
Dale sued the scouts under a 1992 New Jersey law protecting the civil rights of gay people. He lost in 1995, but last year the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Dale's favor.
KU School of Education Graduates!
- Fill out your Convocation ticket request form by Monday, May 1,2000 and return to room 117 Bailey Hall.
- Convocation is Saturday, May 20, 2000 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Lied Center.
- Convocation celebrates students graduating at all levels from Fall 1999, Spring 2000,and Summer 2000.
For more information call 864-9612 or visit www.soe.ukans.edu.
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GRAD FAREWELL
Walking down the Hill in May? Then join us Wednesday, April 26
Anytime between 6-8 p.m. at the Adams Alumni Center
- Enjoy FREE pizza and soda. Gumby's, Pyramid, Lawrence Pizza Co., The Wheel and Papa Keno's will compete for the title "Class of 2000's New Millennium Pizza."
- 50¢ draws available with proper ID.
- Receive a free KU T-shirt, license plate frame, or Jayhawk Koosie when you sign up for a Jayhawk Visa at the Grad Farewell. Or call INTRUST Bank for details at 1-800-222-7458.
- Win great door prizes.
- Learn how you can make KU connections worldwide through involvement with the Alumni Association.
- Attend "Life After KU" sessions and learn more about financial planning, job interviewing and much more. Concurrent sessions offered at 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on the first floor of the Alumni Center—then stay for free Grad Farewell food, prizes and fun!