Morally straight How the fight for LGBTQ+ inclusion changed the Boy Scouts--and America
Book - 2024
This deeply-reported narrative illuminates the battle for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Boy Scouts of America, a decades-long struggle led by teenagers, parents, activists, and everyday Americans. Weaving in his own experience as a scout and journalist, Mike De Socio's Morally Straight tells a story that plays out over the course of nearly forty years, beginning in an era when gay rights were little more than a cultural sideshow; when same-sex marriage was not even on the radar; and when much of the country was recommitting to conservative social mores. It was during this treacherous time that accidental activists emerged, challenging one of America's most iconic institutions in a struggle that would forever change the country's vi...ew of gay people and the rights they held in society. In Morally Straight we meet James Dale, the poster child of Scouting who took his fight for inclusion to the Supreme Court; Steven Cozza, the 12-year-old scout in California who started a movement for inclusion called Scouting for All; Jennifer Tyrrell, the lesbian den mother whose expulsion from the Scouts reignited the gay membership controversy; Zach Wahls, the son of lesbian moms who led the final push for policy change; and an array of other previously unknown Scouters who played smaller--but no less crucial--roles in the fight for full inclusion. Richly reported and filled with unforgettable people, Morally Straight braids together these characters and brings to life their collective struggle. This is an essential narrative in the American LGBTQ+ rights movement, and a truly American story about the fight for a better future for our nation's bedrock youth organization.
Location | Call Number | Status | |
---|---|---|---|
2nd Floor New Shelf | 306.76/De Socio | (NEW SHELF) | Checked In |
- Subjects
- Published
-
New York, NY :
Pegasus Books
2024.
- Language
- English
- Main Author
- Edition
- First Pegasus Books cloth edition
- Physical Description
- xxiii, 376 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 24 cm
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-376).
- ISBN
- 9781639363858
- Glossary
- Prologue
- Part 1. Court of Law
- 1. Betrayed by the Boy Scouts
- 2. The Best Interests of Scouting
- 3. Working the Courts
- 4. Let's Start Something
- 5. The Supreme Court
- 6. Pyrrhic Victory
- Part 2. Court of Public Opinion
- 7. Shaped by Scouting
- 8. Back into the Spotlight
- 9. Accidental Activists
- 10. Spinning Up Scouts for Equality
- 11. An Eagle Scout, Denied
- 12. The Big Push
- 13. Ban on the Ballot
- Part 3. Court of Honor
- 14. An Untenable Policy
- 15. The World as It Is
- 16. The Vote Heard 'Round the Campfire
- 17. The Final Frontiers
- 18. Morally Straight, Totally Queer
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
Review by Kirkus Book Review