To: eagles@flash.usc.edu Subject: Letter from James Dale Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1993 10:07:12 -0800 From: "Kraig R. Meyer" You may recall a week or so ago a note about James Dale, who is suing the Boy Scouts of America. Here is the full text of his letter, along with the certification that he is asking former scouts to read, sign, and return to help in his court case. If you were involved in scouting, please consider sending in this certification to help out in this important case! --Kraig -------------------------------------------------------------------- JAMES DALE 4 Lisa Lane Port Monmouth, New Jersey 07758 March 3, 1993 Dear Mr. xxxx, I received your name from Forgotten Scouts. I am writing this letter because I wanted to share a bit of my Scouting experience with you and wanted to ask you for your support in my fight to establish the right of all to participate in he Boy Scouts of America Scouting was the most important part of my youth. I joined the Cub Scouts at the age of 8 and then dedicated the next 12 years of my life to the Scouting program. In 1988, at the age of 17, I attained the highest honor in Scouting, my Eagle Scout Badge. The next year, I continued my involvement as an Assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 73 of Monmouth Council in Matawan, New Jersey. While growing up, Scouting gave me a sense of belonging and focus. As a Scout, I worked hard, so hard in fact that my local council recognized that work with numerous honors. I was elected into the Order of the Arrow and was later honored as the chair of the Vigil Honor Selection Committee. My local council even thought of me as such a model Scout that they asked me to speak as the only youth representative at fundraising events. All that ended at the age of 19 when I came out as a proud gay man. When officials at my local BSA council learned that I am gay, they sent me a letter expelling me. They claimed that I could not meet the "standards of leadership" set by the BSA simply because I am gay. It was the Boy Scouts who taught me to be proud -- proud of who I am. How is it that I am no longer fit to be a leader just because I am proud to be gay? Another virtue Scouting taught me was to stand up for what I believe in -- for what is right. I believe that discrimination is wrong in all of its manifestations and it has no place in the Boy Scouts of America. Therefore, I am challenging the anti-gay policy of the Boy Scouts of America in court. In July 1992, I brought a lawsuit against my local council and the Boy Scouts of America under a New Jersey statute that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The suit seeks a determination that the anti-gay policy violates the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and seeks my reinstatement as an Assistant Scoutmaster in Monmouth Council. However, for this I need your support. One of the important factual questions that will come up at trial is whether the BSA's anti-gay policy is essentially a secret policy. BSA officials have claimed in previous lawsuits that excluding homosexuals from Scouting has always been a widely-known policy of the BSA. This was certainly not my experience of twelve years. In fact, I didn't know that gays couldn't be involved in the Boy Scouts of America until I was expelled because of this policy. I have enclosed a certification with this letter. Your filling it out and sending it back to me will be an enormous help in establishing whether the BSA's anti-gay policy is widely known. By signing and returning the certification, you will provide the court with a statement that your experience was the same as mine -- that you participated in Scouting for many years without knowing that gays were not eligible for membership in the Scouts. Signing the certification does not, of course, imply that you are gay. If you know of anyone else who could make this certification, please feel free to copy and distribute it. To properly complete the certification, you will need to fill in the state and county of your residence, the dates during which you were a Scout or were involved in Scouting (the years will be sufficient) and your Scout rank and any positions you may have held in the BSA, including as an adult leader. Sign it at the end and return it to me in the enclosed self-addressed envelope. If you have any questions about the certification such as how it will be used in the case, or if you would like to have a certification drafted that more precisely reflects your personal experience in Scouting, please call my attorneys David Goldman (212-225-2922) or Elisabeth Ostrow (212-225-2628) collect. Please also contact my attorneys if when you were involved in Scouting you did know that the BSA refused membership to gays. We would appreciate knowing more about your experience such as how you found out about the policy. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and for your support with this case. I know that together, we cannot lose. Sincerely, James Dale ---------------------------------- CUT HERE ---------------------------------- EVANS, OSBORNE KREIZMAN 180 White Road Little Silver, New Jersey 07739 (908) 741-9550 CLEARY, GOTTLIEB, STEEN LAMBDA LEGAL DEFENSE AND & HAMILTON EDUCATION FUND, INC. One Liberty Plaza 666 Broadway New York, New York 10006 New York, New York 10012 (212) 225-2000 (212) 995-8585 Attorneys for Plaintiff James Dale ----------------------------------------x : SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY JAMES DALE, : CHANCERY DIVISION : MONMOUTH COUNTY Plaintiff, : Docket No. Mon-C-330-92 : -against : : : BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA, and : MONMOUTH COUNCIL, BOY : CERTIFICATION SCOUTS OF AMERICA, : : Defendants. : : ----------------------------------------x STATE OF _______________________________) ) COUNTY OF ______________________________) 1. I, __________________________ reside in _____________________ County in the State of ___________________________. I make this certification in support of plaintiff James Dale. 2. I was a registered member of Boy Scouts of America from ___________________________ to _____________________________. In the Boy Scouts of America, I achieved the rank and positions of ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ . 3. During the period in which I was a registered member of Boy Scouts of America, I was familiar with the policies of Boy Scouts of America. During this period, I was never aware that Boy Scouts of America had a policy of excluding homosexuals from membership. No one involved in Scouting ever told me that such a policy existed, nor did I ever read about such a policy in materials provided to me by Boy Scouts of America. Nothing that I learned while involved in the Scouting program suggested to me that homosexuals would not be eligible for membership in Boy Scouts of America. Further, I never knew it to be one of the central purposes of Boy Scouts of America or the Scouting program to exclude homosexuals. 4. I certify that the foregoing statements made by me are true. I am aware that if any of the foregoing statements made by me are wilfully false, I am subject to punishment. __________________________________ Dated: __________________________, 1993