In 1987, the United States Navy (USN) discharged him for homosexuality, after which Scott worked to overturn the Department of Defense (DoD) directive prohibiting the military service of lesbian and gay Americans.

[4] Scott was an advocate for legal access to medical marijuana,[5] a critic of early HIV prevention education strategies,[6] and a proponent for expanded academic research to support the public policy goals of queer communities.

"[13] In high school, Scott associated with theater students from the University of Mississippi, visited gay bars in nearby Memphis, Tennessee, and was sexually active with other men.

The action was held in conjunction with a demonstration at the office of D.C. Council member Wilhelmina Rolark (D-Ward 8), who had obstructed previous repeal efforts in the Judiciary Committee she chaired.

[18][19] Scott was among a group of eleven activists who confronted Rolark at a meeting of the Judiciary Committee on February 20, 1992, prompting anger from council member Hilda Mason (Statehood-At-Large) who shouted, "Get out of my face.

[21] After undercover officers from the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department's Narcotics and Special Investigations Division raided the Follies, an adult theater frequented by gay men, on February 9, 1992, and arrested fourteen patrons on charges of sodomy and other sex-related offenses,[22] Scott asserted that the complaints about reportedly unprotected sex that triggered the raid should have instead led to a visit from a public health worker.

[24] More than a hundred protesters attended the demonstration, which began with a rally outside the Follies, where Scott was among the speakers, to decry the city's enforcement of the sodomy law against consenting adults.

"[2] By the end of 1993, Scott was described as "one of a growing number of mostly young, hard-core activists" who had lost faith in the leadership of the "national gay rights organizations.

[36] In April 1993, Scott attended that year's March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation, brandishing a tattoo commemorating his discharge for homosexuality,[37] and distributed a broadsheet called "Homos in the Military: The Queer Truth.

"[38][39] He was among twenty current and former lesbian and gay service members to address a rally of two hundred demonstrators outside the Pentagon calling on the military to reverse its policy on homosexuality.

[41] Years later, Scott would argue that the policy was an offense to "our victory over the closet" and posit that the movement's "exaggerated appreciation for privacy" may have contributed to the outcome.

[14] Upon the military's implementation of the DADT policy in the fall of 1993, Scott organized an effort to send copies of the gay publication Out to every ship in the Navy's fleet.

[54][24] In the coming years, he continued to publicly advocate the practice of disclosing if one had been diagnosed with HIV before engaging in any sexual activity and was described as an "outspoken proponent" of unprotected sex.

[3] David Kirp, a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, criticized Scott for both his views and his admitted sexual practices and implied he was guilty of "finger-pointing and denial.

[10] He could recite a litany of side effects caused by the prophylaxis treatments required to prevent a range of potentially fatal opportunistic infections.

[2][3] Sullivan described the dramatic change he watched in Scott, now with "round blue eyes almost tiny in his wide, pudgy face, his frame larger than I remembered it: bulky, lumbering, heavy.

[70] During a question and answer session, Scott told the former director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, William Bennett, that marijuana had helped him survive AIDS.

"[70] In April 2000, Scott, as executive director of CAMM, traveled to Tallahassee, Florida, to lobby state lawmakers to advance model legislation that would accomplish the same protections for medical users as the referendum initiative, for which the organization was then collecting signatures for placement on the 2002 ballot.

Scott told the investigators how marijuana helped save his life by combatting the side effects of other medications, enhancing appetite, reducing nausea, and mitigating pain.

"[64][63] On June 9, 1998, Scott appeared on a medical marijuana panel convened as part of the United Nations Special Session on the "World Drug Problem.

"[76] In Fort Lauderdale, Scott also volunteered for other community organizations, serving on the board of directors and as spokesperson for Pride South Florida, which hosted an annual film festival as well as the annual LGBTQ parade and festival,[77][78][79] the Stonewall National Library and Archives,[80] and the People With AIDS Coalition (PWAC) of Broward County, of which Scott also served as president for one year.