James Beard President Returns Boy Scout Award

This week, James Beard Foundation president Susan Ungaro accepted the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Boy Scouts of America at that organization's annual Food and Hospitality Dinner, which raises funds to send underprivileged children to summer camps.

 

Well, some underprivileged children, at least. The Boy Scouts of America still has a policy of banning gay scouts and scoutmasters.

 

The Huffington Post's Michelangelo Signorile pointed out that the BSA were an odd choice of bedfellows for the JBF, as James Beard himself was openly gay and discriminated against because of it, such as when he was kicked out of Reed College in 1922 for being gay.

 

Signorile questioned Ungaro about her choice to accept the award and "knowingly legitimize a group that stigmatizes gays."

 

Within a few hours of Signorile's post, Ungaro wrote back that he was right and that she would be returning the award.

 

"While I support all the poverty and hunger-fighting programs of the Boy Scouts of America, including sending at-risk youth to camp, your report brought to my attention that accepting the Distinguished Citizen Award implied I support their anti-gay policy, which I absolutely do not," Ungaro wrote. "When I accepted the honor, I was focused on supporting the New Jersey chefs and restaurant community. I have informed the Boy Scouts of America that I am rescinding my acceptance of the award."

 

"The BSA had this national policy," she later told The Jersey Journal, "And knowing the person our foundation was named for was a wonderful gay man who would not be allowed to be a scout leader, I felt certain I needed to return the award. I think even out of this difficult situation we raised people's awareness that discrimination still exists."

 

The BSA sent their own response:

 

"Susan Ungaro notified us of her decision to return the Distinguished Citizen Award given to her for service to inner city youth. We understand her position and respect her right to express it. We remain thankful for her effort to support at-risk youth in the community. We have supporters with a wide range of views on this topic who agree that scouting is not the place to discuss it or reconcile divergent viewpoints in society. Rather, they understand our disagreements as minor when compared to our shared vision and commitment to serving youth."

 

While it's undeniable that the Boy Scouts do some good work in their commitment to serving straight youth, clearly there's some conflict of opinions over the idea that discrimination is a "minor disagreement."