Scout's Honor

Scout's Honor (2001)

This compelling documentary explores the national movement Scouting for All, beginning with its formation in the late 1990s when heterosexual teen Steven Cozza and his father, San Francisco social worker Scott Cozza, petitioned to allow gays to participate openly in the Boy Scouts of America. Scout's Honor captured several prizes on the film festival circuit, including the Freedom of Expression Award and the Audience Award at Sundance.

Date of release
2001-01-25
TMDB
3.0 / 10 (3)
Runtime
57m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Tom Shepard

Interesting facts

Scout's Honor is a 2001 American documentary film directed by Tom Shepard and written by Meg Moritz. Appearing as themselves in the documentary are Steven Cozza, James Dale, Tim Curran, Dave Rice and Scott and Jeanette Cozza. The film examines the Boy Scouts of Americas (BSA) policy against gays in the organization. It focuses on Steve Cozza and Dave Rice who join to fight against the policy, and also relates the stories of two gay men who were expelled from the organization, and fought back in the courts. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2001, where it won an Audience Award for Best Documentary, and director Tom Shepard won a Freedom of Expression Award.

Background and history

In various interviews throughout the years with Cozza, who eventually became a professional road bicycle racer as an adult, said that Robert Espindola, who is gay, was a role model of his growing up, and his commitment for change in the BSA was inspired by Espindola and his dad, a social worker and former AIDS counselor.

So together with his father and Dave Rice, another scoutmaster who had been ousted from the organization for speaking out in support of Cozza, decided to form their own group and called it Scouting for All (SFA), who accepted members regardless of their sexual orientation.

Tom Shepard said he took on the project in 1998 after reading an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about a newly formed organization called SFA, whose primary goal was challenging the anti-gay ban in the BSA. It was in that same article that he read about one of the co-founders of SFA, 12-year-old Cozza from Petaluma, California.

After an agreement was reached with Cozza and his family to appear in the documentary, there was an understanding that the project was going to encompass more than just the one issue of the discriminatory policies of the BSA. The film would also document Cozza growing up on camera and maturing into a young adult.

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