Pride Guide 2001 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
How a straight Boy Scout was inspired to change them
by Kaizaad Kotwal
Prejudice, even in our supposedly more tolerant new millennium, is ubiquitous. Will and Grace may be a mainstream hit, but on Main Streets all over America, GLBT folk still face hate, discrimination, and ridicule on a daily basis. They are the fly on the apple-pie image of straight Americana.
No group exemplifies this apple-pie image more than the Boy Scouts. There is a brilliant new documentary called Scout's Honor that examines the discriminatory prac-
Tom Shepard
tices of the Boy Scouts of America when it comes to gay men and youth. Directed by Tom Shepard, the 58-minute documentary is a simple yet stunning piece that exposes the hate, hypocrisy and hysteria behind the Scouts' venomous homophobia.
Scout's Honor was a hit at this year's Sundance Film Festival where it was the cowinner of the Audience Award for documentaries. The Boy Scouts are probably one of the most venerable organizations in this country, and in recent years have come under a lot of fire for their treatment of gay troop leaders and other gay members.
Filmmaker Shepard's hope is to "take his film on the road extensively, especially to classrooms and communities that are in conflict with the BSA."
Shepard is aware of the resistance he will face from principals "who say that they don't have this issue in their schools" to parents "who scream and shout about their kids being indoctrinated about the gay way of life." Editor Jim Klein has formed New Day Films to do precisely this type of outreach with a film like Scout's Honor.
Born and raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Shepard went to college at Stanford where he created his own major in human biology with an emphasis in film and video production. Shepard got his start in journalism with the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour, then moved to National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. to work with Linda Wertheimer, one of the anchors of the evening show All Things Considered.
Shepard's introduction to documentaries came when a friend put him to work on Camp Lavender Hill, a piece about the first summer camp for kids of gay parents.
"This is where I cut my teeth on documentary making," he explained. "Then three years ago, I heard about this straight-identified kid named Steven Cozza who was taking on the Boy Scouts of America for their anti-gay policies."
If there ever is an example of a gay-
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straight alliance it is in the young yet amazingly mature embodiment of Steven Cozza. At the age of 12, when most boys are primarily obsessed with their Nintendo skills, Cozza decided to take on the Boy Scouts for their mistreatment of gays. He founded Scouting For All, which works to end the Scouts' ban on gays.
As Shepard pointed out, what Cozza was doing "was not in a vacuum but rather within a sea change of events,” referring to a twenty-year span where Tim Curran brought the first suit against the Scouts in 1980, followed by the celebrated James Dale case of the 1990s. The U.S. Supreme Court last year ruled against Dale, holding that the Scouts are a private group that doesn't have to comply with New Jersey's gay equal rights law.
To anyone who bemoans the lack of role models these days, particularly for youth, they need look no further than this young man. Cozza, however, doesn't see himself as a hero.
"I'm just a normal kid," he humbly differs. "Besides, the Scouts have not changed their policy towards gays, so I can't be too proud."
The Scouts kicked Cozza's scoutmaster father from the organization because of their joint activism.
The Scouts' objection to gays is based on an assumption that homosexuality is immoral. "Kicking out my dad was the immoral thing to do," Cozza proclaims emphatically, "and they are simply not a good role model."
Cozza says that his decision to form Scouting For All didn't happen overnight. "It took me about a week," he clarifies without any sense of irony, "to decide to protest their policies."
It would be normal to question why a 12year-old, straight-identified kid would be so committed to gay rights and civil rights advocacy. In Cozza's case the answer is Robert Espindola, a church camp counselor, who has had a profound impact on the young man's psyche and social development.
“I wondered one day," explained Cozza, "why Robert couldn't be allowed” to be a part of the Boy Scouts just because he is gay. According to Shepard and the film, "Espindola put a face on these ideas for Steven and he has been the main force" behind the young lad's activism.
Does it bother Cozza that people might question his sexuality because of his work for gay Scouts? "I can see why they would question that, but my reply to them is always that there's nothing wrong in being gay."
The movie ends with Cozza achieving his Eagle Scout status. But he informed me that since that time he has "left them because the Scouts kicked out my dad and David Rice."
Rice is the other protagonist featured in Scout's Honor, a 70-year-old scoutmasteralso straight-who took on the fight with Cozza.
Today, Cozza understands that the fight that he continues, along with his very committed parents, is "not about changing their policy so much, but is about the healing and the education that goes on along the way."
"Besides," he claims with some triumph, "their policy is really hurting them as they have lost a big percentage of their membership and money."
The attention that he has been getting "is odd" for Cozza "because the message is so much more important than the messenger."
Mature and movingly humble as this boy is, he is still at heart just that, a boy. He loves his road biking and hopes to "be a professional biker soon." On his "bad days" he
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Steven Cozza answers a question at a press conference in the film. Behind him is Tim Curran at left, and James Dale.
rides his "bike for longer distances and thinks of the good days" to help him get through.
When I rhetorically ask Cozza why it is important to fight homophobia, he fluidly responds, "It is a form of hatred and ignorance that influences violence."
Then with a pause he adds, "Matthew Shepard was killed by an Eagle Scout." But like Anne Frank, Cozza still has, in his words, "the belief that people can be good."
Tom Shepard's film is an important and polished piece of cinema. Shepard's work, along with Ohioan Jim Klein's editing, is unflinchingly honest, simple in its technique and yet packs a powerful punch.
The film has already met eligibility requirements to be considered for the top award in documentary film making at next year's Oscars. If there is any justice, this film will definitely be nominated.
Scout's Honor was also made possible in part through funding from ITVS, an arm of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
PBS will air Scout's Honor as part of the P.O.V. film series in the third week of June. WOSU Channel 34 in Columbus and WGTE 30 in Toledo will air it at 10 pm Tuesday, June 19, repeating at 4 am the same night in Toledo and at 2 am Friday, June 22 (Thursday night) in Columbus.
WVIZ 25 in Cleveland will join WPTD/ WPTO 14/16 in Dayton, airing it at 10 pm Thursday, June 21. Frontline's "Assault on Gay America" will follow in Cleveland at 11 pm; Scout's Honor will be repeated there at 1 am Saturday night.
WNEO/WEAO 45/49 in Kent and Akron will air it at 4 pm Saturday afternoon June 23, and WCET 48 in Cincinnati at 11:30 pm Friday, June 22.
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