SCOTUS Protected the Scouts’ Right to Exclude Me—And Their Right to Be Inclusive

I joined the Boy Scouts—today, known as Scouting America—when I was 8 years old. 

In 1990, days before my 20th birthday, the organization told me I was no longer welcome. 

I had earned the Eagle Scout rank. I had spent my youth giving back. My childhood felt like a lie.

Their reason: Scouts must be “morally straight.” They argued that being gay was incompatible with the Scout oath to lead with “honesty, to be clean in your speech and actions, and to be a person of strong character.”...