First, allow me to introduce myself:

• Grandson of one of the Boy Scouts of America’s first employed executives.

• Eagle Scout.

• Scout Council summer camp counselor.

• Vigil Honor, Order of the Arrow.

• Lodge chief, 1,000-plus member Order of the Arrow Lodge.

• Ranger and camp director, Philmont Scout Ranch.

• Former local Boy Scout Council board member.

• Retired Navy captain with 25 years of service.

• Retired executive director of statewide health leadership institute.

• Straight and happily married.

Every Mainer who cares about fairness, justice and what we are doing as a nation to build tomorrow’s leaders should be heartened that the volunteer leadership of the Boy Scouts of America may soon end its outright ban on gay adults serving as scout leaders.

However, a closer look at the scouts’ proposed policy change reveals a troubling fact. Local scout troop sponsors would still have the authority to continue discriminatory practices, denying some young people as well as adult leaders the opportunity to take part in Scouting.

In recent years, the message sent to young scouts – and to the nation – has been clear: The Boy Scouts of America believes that there is something wrong with individuals who are gay – and that gay leaders cannot be trusted to head units in local communities, presumably because they will promote their sexual orientation or sexually abuse young, vulnerable scouts.

The Boy Scouts of America holds itself out as the nation’s foremost organization focused on “building character” among young people. Through its policies, however, the BSA is telling young people that some Americans are not equal – and that treating all people with fairness, dignity and respect is not part of being a man or woman of character in their community.

This is no different from discriminating against African-Americans or immigrants, or against people who have a mental illness or a physical disability. It reinforces the attitude that some Americans are less equal than others.

Over time, policies and actions such as the BSA’s will continue to drive wedges between Americans rather than unite us.

Thankfully, the U.S. military – perhaps the largest “character-building” enterprise in our nation – has finally gotten over its archaic and unsubstantiated belief that gay leaders and gay soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Guardsmen will somehow weaken our nation’s defense. The Defense Department is now reconsidering its ban on allowing transgender individuals to serve in uniform.

The Boy Scouts of America’s board president, Robert Gates, a former secretary of defense, knows from his own experience why it was so important for the military to end its longstanding, unjust, discriminatory practices. It’s high time the BSA follows the Department of Defense’s lead on this issue.

Over the past four decades – and at every step in my professional career – I have served alongside smart, committed and highly accomplished individuals who identified themselves as gay. I have served in organizations led by immensely capable leaders who were gay.

So I am deeply saddened by the knowledge that so many highly capable and effective leaders I have known would not be permitted – even under the Boy Scouts’ proposed new policy – to join or lead units in some communities. Scouting today would not welcome as leaders dozens of the men (and women) I knew as fellow scouts, camp counselors, Philmont staff and Order of the Arrow members, naval officers and others.

The Boy Scouts of America is placing itself and the fulfillment of its mission in jeopardy by isolating the organization and its membership from mainstream America. Unless this discriminatory policy changes – at all levels – the Boy Scouts of America will see more and more people like me taking very public steps to demonstrate our dissatisfaction with its wrongheaded policies.

The BSA cannot, over time, continue to lose the financial and volunteer support of people like me – former scouts and community leaders who will not tolerate injustice of this kind.

Like others, I can no longer remain quiet. I need to speak out – or live with the knowledge that my silence is, in essence, a sign of support for the scouts’ discriminatory policies.

Gates has demonstrated great leadership in his words and actions over many years at the Defense Department and the BSA. Instead of stopping short at this critical juncture, he should push hard for a new policy that requires all scout units to welcome every young person and adult who is drawn to Scouting.

It’s high time for the Boy Scouts of America board of directors to demonstrate its own leadership by demanding that discrimination end in every Scout unit in every community across our nation.

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