Zach Wahls: A (somewhat) accidental activist

In January, 2011, a young Eagle Scout named Zach Wahls stands before the Iowa House Judiciary Committee. He is there to give his testimony against a proposed gay marriage ban in the state.

Dressed in a sharp gray suit, Wahls introduces himself as a sixth-generation Iowan, college student and, most importantly, the son of two moms. In the three-minute speech that follows, he tells the story of his family, illustrating how his sister and two mothers go to church and bicker just like any other family. He uses a litany of personal accomplishments — high ACT scores, Eagle Scout, small-business owner — to prove that gay couples can raise successful children.

“If I was your son, Mr. Chairman, I believe I’d make you very proud,” he says.

A video of Wahls’ testimony is posted on YouTube, and within weeks it racks up millions of views, making him a national figure in the fight for gay marriage rights. He decides to take a leave from the University of Iowa to work on a memoir about growing up with lesbian parents. But as a 19-year-old, he feels he needs a hook to make his book feel more relevant, so he turns to the Boy Scouts. He uses the Scout Oath and Law as the structure for the chapters, each one concluding with a “Scouting minute” to reflect on what that particular point of the Scout Law meant to him.

Just as his book is being released in April, 2012, the Boy Scouts connection becomes even more relevant. Jennifer Tyrrell, a lesbian den mother from Ohio, is removed from her Scouting unit for being gay, reigniting a controversy that had lain mostly dormant for a decade. Wahls helps Tyrrell deliver a Change.org petition with 275,000 signatures to the BSA national meeting that year, but it doesn’t move the needle.

"The question then became, how do we turn this moment into a movement?” Wahls tells me.

This is when everything begins to shift. Up until this moment, Wahls had put most of his weight behind the fight for marriage equality. But he realizes Tyrrell’s expulsion from the Scouts is an opportunity to create new momentum to end the ban on gay members. And he — an Eagle Scout turned gay rights advocate — is the perfect person to lead it. Scouts for Equality is born.

From there, a 12-month push of petitions and public pressure leads to a critical moment in April, 2013: The BSA announces it will vote on a youth-only exemption to the ban on gay members. Wahls describes this as the most challenging day for him as the leader of SFE, because he was up against a critical question: Should SFE endorse this policy as a half-step in the right direction? Or should they push for an all-or-nothing end to the gay ban?

It was particularly tough because Jennifer Tyrrell, whose exclusion from the Scouts kicked off this entire campaign, would not benefit from a policy allowing only gay youth. But Wahls and his team ultimately decided to support the youth-only policy, urging members of the National Council to vote in favor of it.

On May 23, 2013, a majority of the council did just that, marking the end to a decades-long ban on gay youth in the Boy Scouts of America, but leaving intact the exclusion of adult volunteers and staff.

Looking back, the intense two years of activism that led to this moment came as somewhat of a surprise to Wahls, who now serves as a state senator in Iowa. While the issue of gay membership in the Scouts was always on his radar, it was not the battle he intended to fight when he stood before the Iowa House in 2011. He took the lead only after he realized his unique position and voice had the power to make real change.

Wahls will join me for a live interview on May 23, 2021 — the eighth anniversary of the end to the gay youth ban — to reflect on his experience as an activist, and give advice to the next generation of leaders who are pushing for inclusion and justice in the BSA.

I hope you’ll consider watching and participating in the event. You can learn more about it here in my post from a couple of weeks ago, and register here on Eventbrite.