GLAD Spotlights Boy Scouts Case on 30th Anniversary Website

Boy Scouts of America v. Wyman: Morally Clean and Straight?

February 15, 2008 -- In the late 1990’s, suits all over the country took various approaches to challenge the Boy Scouts’ discrimination against gay men and youth. Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) engaged in one of the few successful suits, Boy Scouts of America v. Wyman in Connecticut, in which the Scouts were barred from a state employee fund-raising campaign.

In a podcast and on its 30th anniversary website, www.glad.org/30years, GLAD takes a look at the 2000 Connecticut case in which the Boy Scouts (BSA) argued that, despite not complying with Connecticut non-discrimination law, they should be allowed to take part in the state employee charitable campaign.

GLAD’s podcast, “Morally Clean and Straight: Boy Scouts of America v. Wyman,” features interviews with former scout executive David Knapp and GLAD senior attorney Jennifer Levi. Connecticut resident Knapp, now 81, was expelled from the BSA after a lifetime of scouting when the organization “discovered” he was gay.  Levi led the GLAD effort to establish that the Boy Scouts couldn’t have it both ways – both excluding gays from participation and enjoying the benefits of a state program that requires non-discrimination.

Said Levi, “It was an opportunity for us to highlight the real harms that those kinds of [discriminatory] policies have on members of our community, and family members of those in our community as well.”

Throughout 2008, GLAD’s 30th anniversary year, the organization will honor its history, looking at some of the precedent-setting cases that have catapulted GLAD into the headlines, and highlighting some of the people whose courage and determination changed the lives of LGBT people throughout the country.

The first podcast, “Byrant, Byrne and the BPL – The Sick, The Bad, The Ugly” revisited the events surrounding a 1978 bathroom sting operation at the Boston Public Library, including protests, court cases, and the founding of GLAD. 

The podcasts will be rolled out on the 15th of every month. Listeners can download podcasts and subscribe to the entire series at http://www.glad.org/30years/podcasts.html.

GLAD thanks The History Project for use of archival material that will appear on the website throughout the year.

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD)  is New England’s leading legal organization dedicated to eliminating discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV status, and gender identity & expression.