Gary Carroll will be the nation's first openly gay scout executive

Gary Carroll is about to make history in two ways: When he starts his new role at the Cascade Pacific Council in Portland, he will become the first openly gay scout executive in the country, and the first Black scout executive for the council.

“I’m not doing this because I’m gay. I'm not doing this because I'm Black. I’m just not letting the challenges that come with those two parts of my identity stop me from doing what’s important,” Carroll said.

He’s currently wrapping up his role as the director of field services and chief operating officer at the Greater Los Angeles Area Council, where he’s worked for the last two years. He said he’s always wanted to return to Portland — where he previously served as a field director, and where he first came out to his Scouting colleagues — but the opportunity presented itself sooner than he anticipated.

In fact, Carroll almost didn’t apply for the job. When he saw on Facebook that the current scout executive in Portland was retiring, he had no intention of pursuing the role.

“My initial response to that was, ‘Congratulations Matt.’ And then my personal response was, that’s wonderful but I’m very happy in Los Angeles right now,” he said.

But then he started getting calls from volunteers in the Cascade Pacific Council asking if he would apply. He said no, over and over again, until one volunteer convinced him: the job description seemed to be tailor-made for Carroll. So he applied.

He went through multiple rounds of interviews, an exercise he was familiar with, but with one notable difference: “I didn’t hold back about any aspect of me.” Carroll disclosed that he was gay, and that he was working to make the BSA more inclusive. “They knew everything about that, and that I wasn’t going to shy away from it. And I think that is something they appreciated,” he said.

“In previous iterations of Boy Scout culture, it had been taboo,” Carroll went on. In previous interviews, it wasn’t brought up. The questions never got asked. Or if they did, they were along the lines of, will you be bringing your wife? This time, none of that happened.

Carroll returned home from the final, in-person interview and waited to hear his fate. He got a call from the council president with the good news.

“It was really amazing, and I was just absolutely floored,” Carroll said.

As he prepares to lead the council, he has a clear vision for its future. “We have an opportunity to re-emerge from the Boy Scout bankruptcy, and we can take control of the narrative,” Carroll said. He’s focused on the experience of the scouts and families, and making sure the skills that scouts are learning today will serve them into adulthood. A big piece of that? Teaching kids the emotional intelligence — a skill they often don’t get anywhere else — to navigate social situations and reduce bullying.

“If we have an opportunity to have leaders, that are associated with kids, that can instill these types of skills, we’ve gotta do it,” Carroll said.

That’s ultimately what this new role is about for Carroll — not making history as any kind of “first,” but about making a positive impact for youth.

“I just want to go where I can help and do well, and this is a place where it appears that the stars have aligned,” he said. “We’re going to do things to change the world.”