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SCOUTING AHEAD
Brudnoy speaks up for Boy Scouts diversity
BY LOREN KING

No doubt it was the most heavily covered Salute to Scouting fundraiser in the local Boy Scouts chapter’s 26 years of such dinners, with reporters and TV cameras swarming all over the Westin Copley Place in Boston on June 10. That’s because the master of ceremonies was David Brudnoy of WBZ Radio, who’s both openly gay and a former Boy Scout. He made no secret of the fact that he agreed to participate only because the Boston Minuteman Council, unlike the national Boy Scouts of America (BSA) organization, last year adopted a policy that opposes discrimination in scouting on the basis of sexual orientation.

Brudnoy used his podium time to berate the national BSA, based in Irving, Texas, for refusing to change its anti-gay policy, as many local chapters have done (the Supreme Court two years ago ruled in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale that the BSA, as a private organization, has the First Amendment right to ban gay Scouts and leaders.) "What doesn’t register with the narrow-minded men who run the BSA from Texas is that their exclusion doesn’t enshrine traditional values worth upholding, but just enforces habitual practices well worth leaving behind," he told the 325 contributors, who included CEOs from Blue Cross/Blue Shield and NSTAR. "Anyone who says that to oppose the BSA’s policy where supported by local councils will harm boys fails to realize that far more harm is done a boy by telling him, in word or deed, that his gay friend is worth less than he, and [that] denying a gay classmate the scouting experience is somehow a fine American thing, than by helping a local council come to its senses." (Read Brudnoy’s full address to the Scouts on BostonPhoenix.com.)

But where Brudnoy, who took the national BSA to task in a Boston Herald op-ed column on June 8, was pleased to be trotted out as a symbol at the first dinner since the local council adopted the policy last July (Brudnoy also unveiled the council’s new "diversity-awareness award badge"), his selection was downplayed by Brock Bigsby, Scout executive of the Minuteman Council. First, a June 10 Boston Globe story spun the local council’s selection of Brudnoy as "a clear signal of its exception to the Boy Scouts of America ban on gay troop leaders." Reporter Scott S. Greenberger wrote that Bigsby "hopes choosing Brudnoy will help clear up" confusion about the policy "which has hampered fund-raising," according to the Globe. But by midday, according to Brudnoy, Bigsby was "backtracking" from the morning's Globe piece in a WBZ Radio interview. The Scout executive claimed that Brudnoy was selected solely on the basis of his stature in the media and because he is a former Boy Scout.

When interviewed by the Phoenix on Tuesday, Bigsby took exception to any suggestion that he had backpedaled from citing Brudnoy’s sexual orientation as a clear reason why the talk-show host was invited to speak at the fundraiser and unveil the diversity badge. "Every year we invite a high-profile media individual to be the MC," said Bigsby. "David fits the bill, and he believes in the value of scouting. We are committed to diversity."

He added that neither the selection of Brudnoy nor local opposition to the national policy earned any response from the BSA, which has been criticized for its ties to both the Mormon and (to a lesser extent) Catholic Churches. "We haven’t heard from them and we don’t expect to," Bigsby said. "We focus on our own community and serving our own kids. That’s where we spend our energy."

"Brock has to walk a fine line," said Brudnoy. "He’s paid by the Boy Scouts of America, but he’s the director here and the signatory of the policy. He told WBZ that I wasn’t selected because I’m a gay notable person. Well, there are lots of notable people. I know perfectly well why I was picked, and I’m happy to be a clarion on this topic."

Indeed, Brudnoy took the non-discrimination policy a step further during his remarks when he questioned whether inclusion also extends to broad religious tolerance. "The Minuteman Council should make clear, now, unequivocally, that not only will no one be kept from scouting because of the religion into which he is born or the religion he professes, but also [that] no one will be kept from scouting because he professes no religion," he told the donors. "Just as a boy’s sexual orientation is irrelevant to scouting, so, too, his private philosophical or religious orientation, or lack of it, is irrelevant to scouting."

The next day, Brudnoy said he thought his remarks had given local leaders "a jolt." Bigsby said Brudnoy’s comments came as "a surprise," but demurred from stating whether they would have any immediate effect on the policy of the Minuteman Council, which oversees more than 18,000 Scouts and 3300 adults in Greater Boston. "We welcome debate on all these issues," he said.

Issue Date: June 13 - 20, 2002
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