Community Focus

Q&A with Gary Carroll: Trailblazing Leader in the Boy Scouts of America

24 July 2024

Providence Health Plan's Office of Healthcare Experience and Equity recently hosted a Lunch and Learn featuring Gary Carroll, the first openly gay CEO and Scout Executive in Scouting’s history and leader of the Cascade Pacific Council of Scouting America.

Gary shared his personal journey, life influences, experiences, and career trajectory with the Boy Scouts of America.

Here are five questions he addressed throughout the conversation:

Question: Coming from a long line of trailblazers and history makers, was there ever a time that you felt like you wouldn't measure up to those expectations?

Answer: It was definitely daunting to come from a family that is so established. It's difficult not to make comparisons, but what's helped is how supportive we all are of one another. We all love each other deeply, and the accomplishments are not about the individuals. It's about what we've done collectively for our community and our love for the community that was instilled in us.

Q: What role has music played in your life?

A: Had I not been in the music school at DePauw University, I would have gone into a tailspin. Being able to be a part of a team, going to orchestra rehearsal, and being lifted up by my fellow musicians helped me deal with the fact that I was gay. The music school gave me a place where there were other gay people that I could communicate with that I could work with who had the same passions as me.

Music was my saving grace in many ways because, without it, I would have felt hopelessly alone and may have dropped out of college altogether.

Q: How has your personal journey impacted your role as CEO of an organization that did not, until recently, allow its employees to be openly gay?

A: I had to step back, look at the benefits that the organization brings, and ask myself if the good outweighed the bad. In my experience as a scout, I learned so much, made lifelong friends, and developed leadership skills that I still use to this day. I was dedicated to being the change that I wanted to see, and I didn't back down. I was dedicated to changing hearts and minds and getting people to see through my example that being gay is not a big deal. That it is something to be happy about, that a different perspective is helping the organization grow.

I also don't believe in permanently punishing any organization for its past sins, especially when that organization has made policy changes and shown contrition for its mistakes and made changes to its leadership.

Q: What challenges have you had being a gay Black man in Portland, Oregon, and finding community?

A: I didn't know anybody when I moved to Portland in 2015. I didn't know a lot of people in the gay community, and I certainly didn't know any people of color. I started to meet people in the gay community, and I started asking them if they knew people who looked like me.

It was not until I started being introduced to people and then asking those people who I needed to meet that I finally got my footing.

Q: What does Pride Month mean to you?

A: I love Pride Month because it is an opportunity to show people in every community that it's okay to be you — it's okay to celebrate you. You are enough. There are people who love you and will support you, and we, as a community, are just as important as everybody else.

I'd love for the community to be able to show our true, authentic selves every day without worrying about whether or not someone will be judgmental. Pride Month is a refilling of passion for the work that remains, as well as an opportunity to look back at how far we as a community have come.