Steven turned 16 in March. Just finishing his sophomore year in his California high school, he listens to punk rock, surfs and runs cross-country. He hasn't thought much about college but dreams of someday riding a bicycle in the Tour de France. He's rejected his parents' (Roman Catholic) religion and is studying Buddhism.

Sound like a typical teenager so far? One more thing: Steven is heterosexual and has done more for the GLBT movement in his 16 years than most of us will accomplish if we live to be a hundred.

He's Steven Cozza, who co-founded the Scouting for All organization when he was 12 and learned that his then-beloved Boy Scouts of America discriminates against gays as members and in leadership positions.

Steven's story is told in Tom Shepard's Sundance-award-winning documentary ``Scout's Honor," which will have its broadcast premiere June 19 on most PBS stations as the season opener for the ``POV" series.

Steven expands on and updates that story in a telephone interview from his Petaluma home. It's the week after Steven Spielberg announced his resignation from the BSA Advisory Council in protest over their discriminatory policy. Steven Cozza hasn't heard all the details yet but is eager to and says the filmmaker is ``awesome. It took courage for him to do that."

This from a youth who has stood up to death threats and, perhaps worse, the taunts of his junior high classmates who assumed he was gay when he went public with his stand. ``At first it was pretty bad," he admits. ``I was being called 'fag' and all the normal name-calling. The way I dealt with it was by saying, 'Go ahead and call me that. I know being gay is normal, just like being heterosexual is normal.'

``Things got better when I got to high school. Last year my sister and I started a Gay/Straight Alliance. Do you know there are over 700 of them, Gay/Straight Alliances in over 700 high schools in the country?"

He's less than half my age, but I feel like I'm listening to someone older and wiser. When I think how stupid and naïve I was at his age... Where did he get his attitudes, his beliefs, his strength?

``I've been going to Gay Pride parades since I was three," Steven says, ``and my parents taught me all people are equal." Growing up 40 miles from San Francisco probably helped, even though San Franciscans think of Petaluma as one big chicken farm.

Steven's had gay friends all his life, he says. One of his greatest influences was his church camp counselor Robert Espindola, a gay man who appears in ``Scout's Honor." The idea that Robert wouldn't be able to serve as a scout leader if he chose to really pissed Steven off. ``I couldn't stand that I was in an organization that treated my friends that way."

He started by writing a letter to the editor in December 1997 after he and his father, Scott Cozza, an assistant scoutmaster, were forbidden even to raise the discrimination issue at a meeting of their troop. This led to a petition, which is well over the 60,000 mark in signatures today, and a Web site, www.scoutingforall.org, where you can sign the petition, read Steven's letters and speeches, learn about upcoming events and volunteer to help.

The grass roots movement spread like wildfire and Steven found himself going around the country on speaking engagements, the largest of which was last year's Millennium March on Washington. He says that event ``was fun except the Park Service -- They were losing the time to have the stage so everybody had to cut speeches down to about a minute-thirty. My speech ran seven-to-ten minutes, so I had to cut it down while I was waiting in line to go on."

Being young, straight and a good scout, Steven seemed too perfect a spokesperson for the cause. If anyone is unassailable you know they're going to be assailed. In this case, ``A lot of people accused my dad of forcing me to take this stand," Steven says. ``They thought it odd that a 12-year-old would do it on his own." While his father taught him the values he stands up for and does a lot of work for Scouting for All, ``I make all my decisions in my life," Steven says. ``My dad can't make me do anything."

Unaccustomed as he was to making speeches and giving interviews when he started, ``I've gotten better," Steven says, adding modestly, ``I'm still not good but I'm getting better." At least he hasn't lost the honesty and naturalness that makes crowds love him. It's better than listening to someone whose rap sounds canned.

Speaking of rap, Steven's no fan of Eminem. ``No way," he emphasizes. ``I hate his music and he's a punk. There's so many people who have more talent and better morals. I don't see why he's so popular. I don't like rap anyway," says this fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

``Scout's Honor" tells not only Steven's story but that of Dave Rice, a 71-year-old troop leader who stood with him and was thrown out, after a lifetime in scouting, for his efforts. Steven went on to become an Eagle Scout about two years ago, as shown in the film, but resigned soon afterward, he says, ``because they kicked my dad out."

The film also features James Dale and Tim Curran, who raised public awareness by filing suits against the BSA, ten years apart, for expelling them for being gay.

Steven has shown the film in his high school, to the Gay/Straight Alliance and some English classes, he says. ``They loved it!" He loves it too, although with footage of himself at ages 12 through 15, ``It's kinda weird seeing myself from the beginning of time."

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