Celebrating one year of 'Morally Straight'

Y’all! I almost let it slip by, but today is exactly a year, to the day, since I kicked off this newsletter.

I’m so thrilled with how the newsletter has grown and expanded its ambitions over the past 12 months. To that point, many of you reading now have only joined me on this journey quite recently. (Welcome!) In the spirit of anniversaries, today I’m going to recap some of my favorite stories and moments from the past year.

One of the first things I started posting in the newsletter were Pride Profiles, which grew out of my work preparing for the (eventually canceled) National Order of the Arrow Conference in 2020. This year I profiled Rich Whitney, Matthew McGovern, Davis Kellogg, Andy Martin, Dwayne Fontenette, Jr., David Knapp, Gary Carroll, Christian Goerner and Enrique Valenzuela.

I’ve also taken some deeper looks into LGBTQ+ inclusion within Scouting policies and programs. I gave you an early look into the development of the diversity, equity and inclusion merit badge; I brought you inside VIEW, the new resource group for Scouting's LGBTQ employees and allies; I showed you how Wood Badge tickets could serve as a vehicle for LGBTQ+ inclusion; and I highlighted how the Scouts BSA program continues to let down trans and nonbinary individuals.

But the experience of LGBTQ+ inclusion in Scouting is also deeply personal, and I shared with you the personal stories of some the leading activists in this space, including Forrest Gertin, Zach Wahls, Christopher McCracken, Tayler Hein, Cate Readling and Alison Batey.

During Pride month, I spotlighted some of the efforts going on around the country to celebrate Scouting’s LGBTQ+ members. That included Scouting’s first-ever Pride-themed social media post; an Illinois council’s public statement on Pride month; and the Greater Los Angeles Area Council’s decision to raise a Pride flag at the council office.

I’ve also shared some of my own personal reflections about being queer in Scouting. I talked about how Ryan Jones inspired me to come out in Scouting; the unexpected relief of coming out to my old scoutmaster; how casual homophobia weaved its way through my Scouting experience; how Scouting affected my discovery of my own queerness; and how I’m trying to find my place in Pride.

More recently, I’ve started to feature guest essays as well. The first one, “What’s Past Can Be Prologue,” was written by Sam Aronson. The second one, “Scouting punted on its DEI badge. I’m hurt, but not surprised,” was written by Alex Derr.

Of course, one of the biggest milestones from last year was Morally Straight’s first event, a commemoration of the eight years since the BSA’s gay youth ban fell. Our discussions about the future of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the BSA left me with one big impression: While we’ve made a lot of progress, we still have a long way to go. In our small-group conversations especially, we heard from Scouters all over the country who were struggling with inclusion at the local level. (If you missed the event, you can watch the playback here on YouTube.)

Finally, one of the newsletter’s biggest leaps this year was the launch of paid subscriptions. As you can tell, I’ve been quite busy this past year bringing you a newsletter every week, building this community of Scouters and organizing our big virtual event. Paid subscriptions are a way of supporting all of this work, and keeping it free for everyone else. (Plus, paid subscribers get one additional deep dive each month). I hope you’ll consider supporting me as I raise my ambitions even higher for this year to come.

All I have left to say is THANK YOU. All of you. Thank you for reading. Thank you for your ideas and comments and words of encouragement. I do this all for you, and it makes me so happy to have you along for the ride.

See you in December. (There will not be a newsletter during Thanksgiving week).