A teenage Girl Scout from Ventura County, California has kicked off a bit of controversy by recording a video asking for the boycott of the organization’s famous cookies, due to a Colorado troop’s admission of a transgender child in November of 2011, and now a Houston-based “pro-family” group called “Honest Girl Scouts” has jumped in with a number of other complaints as well, including claiming the Girl Scouts promote a “pro-abortion mindset”. It would be nice if we could find, as people, something that we wouldn’t have to politicize and argue about. I think I’m on the side of the Girl Scouts here (gender is a tricky thing and I’d rather err on the side of being inclusive, rather than exclusive), but it would be nice to buy a few boxes of cookies without it being a political act.
This article appears in Jan 12-18, 2012.
It started when the national organization started making political decisions for local councils. When an organization like GSUSA starts making decisions based on politics and not on what’s good for the girls, you can expect push back from those with different views.