Brad

Dempsey 13468 W. 61st Place Arvada, Colorado 80004 (303) 619-4085 dempseyb@comcast.net Twitter: @BradDempsey LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/bradford-brad-e-dempsey/9/70/3a3/ Eagle Scout, Denver Area Council Den Leader, Cub Scout Pack 203 John Cabeza Scout Executive Denver Area Council John.cabeza@scouting.org And Denver Area Council Voting Members c/o John Cabeza RE: Equality in Scouting Dear Mr. Cabeza and the Denver Area Council Voting Members: As a life-long and loyal member of Scouting, I write to urge you to take positive action at the May 24th National Council Meeting and vote to support the proposal to end the BSAs membership policies that operate to exclude and unfairly discriminate against members of the gay community. To me, Scouting should be and can be an institution that reflects, honors, and continuously promotes our most positive and laudable values across generations of Americans. Such values include treating our fellow citizens with mutual respect, fairness, and equality of opportunity. Today, BSAs discriminatory membership policies fail to abide by and promote these values. As such, they are wrong and should be changed. Rather than return my Eagle award to protest the BSAs policies, I hope to push for change within the BSA and work toward improving the organization that Ive loved and supported for many years. As an Eagle Scout and a current Den Leader in Cub Scout Pack 203, I strongly support the BSA and its mission and enthusiastically devote many hours working with my son and his fellow cub scouts in learning and promoting the many other values of Scouting. Given the extraordinary leadership challenges we face at the national, state, and local levels, I adamantly believe we need to aggressively encourage and welcome more of our citizens to become members to the Scouting family.

 As I suspect you are hearing, Scouts of all political persuasions are working together to put an end the BSAs discriminatory policies. I, and many other Republicans that are Scouts or are involved in Scouting in some way, hope that the BSA will put an end to this matter and move forward with promoting an inclusive culture that supports all Scouts, parents, and leaders. If the policy is not changed, I anticipate that I and many other volunteer leaders and donors will become very discouraged and lose interest in supporting and perpetuating an organization that fails to support basic principles of equality. To put it bluntly, this vote is critically important to the future and longevity of the BSA. Either the BSA is true to the principles it claims to promote, or it is not. I remain hopeful that our Scouting leadership will do the right thing and adopt and embrace the principles of equality of opportunity. I welcome your phone calls or messages if you or any of the voting members wish to follow up and discuss this further. It is my sincerest hope that the Denver Area Council will be a strong and effective voice for correcting the BSAs membership policies at the May 24th meeting. Thank you for considering my opinion. Regards, Brad Dempsey