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Hateful Girl Scout Mad That Girl Scouts Lets In Girls

Jill

“Wait, what?” you ask. “I thought the Girl Scouts was for girls?” And it is! But one California teen haz a mad because the Girl Scouts created a policy to let in all girls — including trans girls. She wants everyone to boycott Girl Scout cookies, because the Girl Scouts should be punished for not ostracizing a little trans girl from their organization. If you want to be extra-horrified, read the Baptist Press’s take on the issue. And then make yourself feel better by ordering a few extra boxes of Samoas this year.

54 thoughts on Hateful Girl Scout Mad That Girl Scouts Lets In Girls

  1. I read about this story and I was so mad! The original article that I read kept referring to trans girls as “trans boys” (obviously to try to make it seem like they’re not “real” girls). Good on Girl Scouts for allowing all female-identifying children into their organization!

  2. I have loved the Girl Scouts for a long time. They do not discriminate against lesbians or atheists, and now I read that they do not exclude trans girls either! Good on you, Girl Scouts.

  3. Good for the Girl Scouts. Amazing how different they are from the Boy Scouts, in so many important ways.

    Apparently, the organization that the “dissenter” is associated with has been complaining about the Girl Scouts for a long time — largely because they support Planned Parenthood and teach sex education.

    Unfortunately, the child in question has withdrawn from the Girl Scouts; the controversy and humiliation were just too much.

  4. Unfortunately, the child in question has withdrawn from the Girl Scouts; the controversy and humiliation were just too much.

    That sucks.

  5. Oh, poor little one. It is true that many times, the first person to break the path isn’t able to take advantage of it, but that would be cold comfort to her, I think.

  6. As a guy who never made it out of the Boy Scouts’ “Cub Scout” program, I’m thrilled by the Girl Scouts’ decision to include Trans girls. I’m straight and disabled; when coupling my disability with the Boy Scouts’ emphasis on physical activity, I could sense something was a bit off regarding the Boy Scouts’ view of handicapped boys, long before I detected the BSA’s hostility toward sexual minorities (in hindsight, I must say that it sounds very similar, i.e. “gay boys are weak,” etc. Childhood ignorance of homosexuality, combined with anger about my own disability, probably caused me to miss it for so long.). Ultimately, what I’m getting at is this: what do the Girl Scouts know about inclusiveness that the Boy Scouts don’t? What’s the history here? Is there just a general lack of respect and dialogue between the two institutions? Are there any Feministe posters or commenters who could, as Ta – Nehisi Coates would say, “do the knowledge?”

  7. Maybe one of you smart, lovely people know the answer to this. When I saw this story, I was confused because I had it in my head that the Girl Scouts allowed boys to join. Was that ever the case, or did I make that up?

  8. Jay: As I recall, the Boy Scouts have been pretty backwards on a lot of issues, including race. My grandpa pulled my dad out of the Cub Scouts because he didn’t like the idea of segregated troops. (For a white guy in the ’50s, Grandpa was fairly progressive.) I wish I could lend some insight, but I was never a Scout.

  9. Many of my friends and I are planning on buying MORE cookies this year because of the boycott call. (Like we need any excuse to buy more. This year it’ll just be extra-sweet.)

    One thing that I hope DOESN’T happen? I really hope that teen is not treated by anyone on our side the way the teen who posted the picture of herself with the Carl Sagan book on the Reddit atheist community was. I know that most of us in spaces like Feministe wouldn’t, but I admit I’m concerned about other spaces on the internet.

    Now, off to start planning my massive cookie order…

  10. Ultimately, what I’m getting at is this: what do the Girl Scouts know about inclusiveness that the Boy Scouts don’t? What’s the history here?

    My understanding is that the Boy Scouts have long had military, nationalistic and religious ties; Robert Baden-Powell, after all, was a British General. According to Wikipedia,

    The BSA’s stated purpose at its incorporation in 1910 was “to teach [boys] patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred values.”[2]:7 Later, in 1937, Deputy Chief Scout Executive George J. Fisher expressed the BSA’s mission; “Each generation as it comes to maturity has no more important duty than that of teaching high ideals and proper behavior to the generation which follows.”[13] The current mission statement of the BSA is “to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law.”[3] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the first partner to sponsor Scouting in the United States, adopting the program in 1913 as part of its Mutual Improvement Association program for young men.[14]

    By contrast, the Girl Scouts, while inspired by Baden-Powell, focused more on empowering girls to participate in the community:

    Girl Scouting in the United States of America began on March 12, 1912 when Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low organized the first Girl Scout troop meeting of 18 girls in Savannah, Georgia. It has since grown 3.7 million members.[4] Low, who had met Baden-Powell in London while she was living in the United Kingdom, dreamed of giving the United States and the world “something for all the girls.” She envisioned an organization that would bring girls out of their sheltered home environments to serve their communities, experience the out-of-doors, and give them the opportunity to develop “self-reliance and resourcefulness.” Unlike other organizations, from its inception, Girl Scouts has been organized and run exclusively by women, for girls and women.[21]

    Maybe the difference is that the BSA has attempted to make boys good citizens by making them good soldiers, and the GSA has attempted to make girls good citizens by making them value themselves.

  11. Sheesh! What a hateful exclusionary attitude. I guess that California girl scout won’t be earning a tolerance merit badge anytime soon.

  12. Good for the Girl Scouts. Amazing how different they are from the Boy Scouts, in so many important ways.

    I know, right? It’s amazing, but on second though, not surprising, that an organization founded with the best interests of girls in mind would be so fundamentally different from one founded specifically for boys. I guess because in our messed up Western society the best interests of boys hinge on maintaining a specific hierarchy. I think it really, really speaks volumes.

  13. There are volumes of reasons not to buy Girl Scout cookies – I boycott them because they are an awful, factory-made product with inferior ingredients, and very little of the proceeds go to the actual scouts.

    If you, like me, hate GS cookies and want to support trans-girl-scouts, may I suggest a cash donation directly to Girl Scouts? Especially this chapter!

  15. Could the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts BE more different?

    It’s like their food products are emblematic of their values. Cookies >>>> gross popcorn tins.

  16. MH,

    I was a Girl Scout just a few years ago and my troop received half of the money from our cookie sales. If we sold $200.00 worth of cookies, the troop received $100.00. I’m not sure what the council got, but most of the cookie money goes to the scouts.

  17. I was never a girl scout, but I was a brownie 🙂

    The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts aren’t even affiliated with each other I don’t think. I can see why. I think it’s awesome.

  18. Make a donation to that little girl’s former troop-and make it in the name of that horrid, hate-filled teen!

  19. Basically in the context of patriarchy:
    a bunch of boys focusing on traditionally masculine pursuits is fairly conservative.
    a bunch of girls focusing on traditionally masculine pursuits is fairly radical.

    It was basically inherent in the concept that the Girl Scouts would be the more progressive group.

  20. Make a donation to that little girl’s former troop-and make it in the name of that horrid, hate-filled teen!

    I don’t know. She’s only 14, and it looked to me like she was reading a script from a teleprompter. I blame her parents for filling her head with lies and bigotry, more than I blame her. I was more upset by all the hateful comments on HuffPost, presumably made by adults. Yes, there were plenty of supportive comments, but the bad ones were — bad.

  21. As an aside, can a 7 year old properly be labeled “trans?” The literature I have seen indicates that the vast majority of kids who are diagnosed gender dysphoric turn out not to have that preference later in life (though most turn out gay/bi; sexuality != gender), and that parents who indulge the preferences of such children may be causing more harm than good especially if puberty blockers or hormone treatments are used in adolesence. I am assuming the child in question is truly trans and not intersexed, which is more complicated.

  23. I don’t know. She’s only 14, and it looked to me like she was reading a script from a teleprompter. I blame her parents for filling her head with lies and bigotry, more than I blame her.

    As the daughter of immigrant parents who were, for the most part, very unaware of any important social issues regarding race (outside their own) and gender here, and as such never gave any input on the matters either way, I feel like I have to defend the girl scout’s parents from these baseless accusations. That’s not to say the girl doesn’t look black or white and therefore MUST have immigrant parents like I did, but we live in a fucked up world, and it’s unfair to immediately assume the parents deserve the blame, believing they have the most influence over their daughter. There are plenty of other hateful adults in the common teen’s life that could have just as easily filled her head with this nonsense.

    I mean, yeah, if you want to talk in generalities, that’s fine, parents can be awful, but we know nothing about this girl’s life. Unless you are aware of something that I’m not. In which case, I take this response back.

  24. I dunno, Miku. Fourteen-year-olds rarely get taken seriously enough by authority to file significant complaints and then be interviewed by reporters without their parents, well, at least approval, if not support. We’re not talking about her being an asshole bully in the hallways; we’re talking about her giving interviews. I’m pretty sure that if her parents had wanted to shut that shit down, they could have.

  25. @Jay: To expand on what Zaza wrote above, scouting organizations world wide vary greatly in their levels of progressiveness and the values they push. But in our neck of the woods, the Boy Scouts of America are much more conservative than their GSA counterparts largely do to a strong push by rightwing interests to keep the organization that way. The largest private supporter of the BSA is the Mormon church which has threatened to pull its tens of thousands of troops if they have to accept gay members. They also have strong ties to the American Civil Rights Union which is exists to be a conservative opposition to the ACLU. While Onymous’ point about traditional boys stuff being revolutionary girl stuff may be subconsciously at play, BSA’s conservative outlook is and was fostered with serious intent. The Girl Scouts have felt the same pressure but chose to maintain their integrity by putting the needs and interests of girls above the wants of patriarchal control freaks.

  26. I’ve never wanted to buy a box of Thin Mints so much in my life! I love waking up to good news in my inbox!

  27. There’s literally no link between the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts endorse another organization calling itself “American Heritage Girls,” which was founded to combat the “liberal” attitude of the Girl Scouts organization.

    Conservatives have it in for the Girl Scouts. The GSA partners with Planned Parenthood to teach girls about sexuality. Do a quick google about “Journeys”, the new Girl Scout curriculum. You’ll find a review of it on WND, blasting it for promoting advocacy and feminine empowerment. Some of the columns around the net talking about Girl Scouts are just so sad to read- they read as hilarious until you stop and think what these people are saying that the Journeys program is training girls to raise their voice when they should really shut up and take what they’re given.

  28. Sorry, but where was she interviewed, EG? I’ll be honest, I’m not looking too hard, but I don’t see anything other than quotes from her video and something from the California Girl Scouts about her name. She’s also part of an organisation called Honest Girl Scouts, which seems to be a Christian fundamentalist group, and they appear to have all the sway, not Taylor. If you can link me to an interview or anything, I would, as I said before, take my response back.

  29. I’m really not buying the “she’s 14, she can’t mean that” line. Yes, she was likely indoctrinated into this by her parents, but teenagers can have strongly held beliefs, even if they are revolting and wrong. And yeah, she should be held accountable for her own beliefs.

  30. Even if she is getting this bigotry from her parents, she can still hurt people with her words. I have no doubt that the awful views held by alot of the kids in my sister’s school came from their parents in this small conservative tea party town.

    Their words, attitudes, and actions still hurt the students they deem beneath them. I hope that the new girl gets treated with respect and that she feels included. If the chick in the video can’t handle anyone who may be different, she should leave the organization.

  31. Most importantly, she’s spearheading a movement-apparently openly and proudly-to cut off the GSA’s most prominent fundraiser at the knees. Girl Scout cookies are an iconic part of modern pop culture, but if this girl had her way, Americans would forever associate them as part of the “anti-family agenda” that is “destroying” their country.

    What better way to unravel her plans than to have thousands of dollars donated in her name to the organization she so loathes?

    Just my two cents.

  32. As an aside, can a 7 year old properly be labeled “trans?” The literature I have seen indicates that the vast majority of kids who are diagnosed gender dysphoric turn out not to have that preference later in life (though most turn out gay/bi; sexuality != gender), and that parents who indulge the preferences of such children may be causing more harm than good especially if puberty blockers or hormone treatments are used in adolesence. I am assuming the child in question is truly trans and not intersexed, which is more complicated.

    Do you have a link to this literature? I haven’t seen anything making that claim yet and would be interested to read it.

    Also, transexuality is not a preference. I would prefer to be comfortable in my body and assigned gender role, but alas, I am not.

  33. As an aside, can a 7 year old properly be labeled “trans?” The literature I have seen indicates that the vast majority of kids who are diagnosed gender dysphoric turn out not to have that preference later in life (though most turn out gay/bi; sexuality != gender), and that parents who indulge the preferences of such children may be causing more harm than good especially if puberty blockers or hormone treatments are used in adolesence.

    I would be interested to know what those stats are, would you happen to know where to find them? Googling; “how does a child know they are trans” turns up links like this one, which is supportive of leaving the option of trans-ness open to children, rather than trying to squash it.

  34. @ Sea the Terrier

    How about we let trans people (a number of whom do report having an early awareness of that part of themselves) decide if they are trans or not, rather than the medical/academic establishment. Just for a change of pace.

    re: 14-year-olds and their opinions

    All my experience with fourteen-year-olds (including being one, though that was over a decade ago now – yikes) informs me that they are just as capable of having and are about as likely to have ill-informed, poorly rationalized, and problematic opinions as any “grown-up”. I’m kind of sick of how every time someone under the age of 18 expresses an opinion about something (whether I agree with the content of that opinion or not), people suggest that they are just parroting their parents or the media, as if that’s not what informs most of ANYONE’S opinions. As if once one hits this mythical “adulthood”, one suddenly has complete autonomy over one’s completely unique opinions which are in no way swayed or lifted directly from one’s normative influences. (And, yeah, I’m still irritated about people arguing that the little girl in the toy store couldn’t possibly have believed what she was saying about the gender politics of pink toys.)

    The reason people sound stilted in videos sometimes is not because they are being coached or don’t believe what they say, but because most people suck at oration. ‘Tis a dying art!

  35. As an aside, can a 7 year old properly be labeled “trans?” The literature I have seen indicates that the vast majority of kids who are diagnosed gender dysphoric turn out not to have that preference later in life (though most turn out gay/bi; sexuality != gender), and that parents who indulge the preferences of such children may be causing more harm than good especially if puberty blockers or hormone treatments are used in adolesence. I am assuming the child in question is truly trans and not intersexed, which is more complicated.

    Do we have to do this again? Really? Didn’t we just have a lengthy comment thread a few weeks ago about the young trans girl in Maine, in which at least one trans woman who’s been posting here regularly for the last several months explained that she was well aware of her transness from the time she was 3 (not that that makes her any more “authentic” than people who didn’t realize it until later), and explained that the one study everyone keeps citing as purported evidence that most children who identify as trans end up changing their minds was authored many years ago by the hateful and loathsome Kenneth Zucker, and is of extremely dubious validity? And that nobody just “indulges the preferences” of trans children — wow, what a loaded phrase that is! — the way they might buy them a new toy?

    She would probably say all this herself if I didn’t happen to know she was sick and tired of having to deal with this sort of expression of “concern,” and of baring her soul to try to persuade people to respect what she and other trans people — of all ages — have to say about themselves.

  36. Oh, and by the way, about the parent thing. There is no way in hell that the Christian Post and

    World News Daily

    and the so-called “Honest Girl Scout” organization would have made this 14-year old girl the spokesperson and face of this “boycott” without her parents’ express approval and, almost certainly, their active encouragement. Can we please be a little bit realistic instead of engaging in entirely unsupported speculation about the theoretical possibility that her parents are immigrants and have no involvement in what she does, simply because of her apparent racial background? If we’re speculating, then my speculation is that she and her family belong to a fundamentalist Christian church and are all in this together.

    I am not for a moment suggesting because of her age she should be absolved of all blame or responsibility for her hatefulness. It’s simply that I can’t get quite as angry at her as I would if she were, say, 5 or 10 years older. And think it’s far more likely than not that her parents share her views.

  38. Full disclosure: I work for a Girl Scout council, so this is going to be long, because it’s something I’ve had a lot of time to think about.

    On the original topic:

    I’m happy to see my favorite feminist blog bringing this up! It caused much angst in the office today. Well, except for the part about the “radical pro-homosexual agenda” because for once, it’s nice that our detractors have made their bigotry so blatantly obvious. Though I do feel a little sorry for that girl. These things are entirely driven by the parents, and I hate it when adults use kids as sticks to bludgeon the world.

    @MH : Almost all of the money from a box of cookies goes to local girl scouts. The ratios vary a little from council to council, but it’s usually something like this:

    Out of a $4 box of cookies, about ~60 cents will go to the troop. About 20 cents will go to the incentives (the prizes the girls earn. Older girls can opt-out and get the extra money instead). About 5-10 cents a box will go to the local service unit (all the troops in a local area). About $1.10 goes to the bakers to pay for the product. About $2 goes to the local council office. None of it goes to GSUSA (though all of the membership dues do).

    This is what that money does:
    The troops use their money for field trips, projects, supplies, camping, or big things like trips to Europe.

    The service unit uses its money to hold events, and pay for camporee (a very big camping trip), and other costs (having a cell phone or a PO box, paying for printing costs, paying for a storage shed, etc)

    the local council uses it to deeply subsidize the cost of camp (in my council, what we charge the girls to go to camp only covers about 25% of the cost), for financial aid, to hold council-wide events, to pay the salaries of council staff like me. (We start troops, provide training, run Girl Scout programs for underprivileged girls, worry about things like insurance, work very closely with service units and leaders to ensure that everything runs smoothly, and etc.)

    While I will always support people giving money to troops, especially if they’re working towards a goal, please don’t discount the importance of what we are teaching the girls with the cookie program. It’s not just a fundraiser. We use it to teach girls budgeting, sales, goal-setting, and the confidence to get out there and go after what they want. And it works. I have seen SO many girls get such a boost from participating in even one booth sale…they gain confidence, they feel proud of themselves, and they learn how to advocate for themselves, and to go after what they want. I was only in Girl Scouts for a year, but I still remember going door to door with my dad after getting some quick lessons in cold-calling. That experience helped me when it came time to get my first job…I never would have been able to suck it up enough to go from shop to shop asking if they were hiring if I hadn’t been able to think, “I did this when I was 8, I can do it now.”

    I’ve never been able to get GSUSA to nail down the details, but apparently the Girl Scout research arm did a big study and found that something like 80% of all female business leaders in the United States were girl scouts once. 2/3rds of women in Congress were.

    So you know, let the girls try out their sales pitch. Buy a box for cookies for a cause (basically, donate a box to whatever the girls are sending cookies to this year) if you don’t actually want to eat them, and then give the donation of cash. Or give the donation after asking them what they’re selling cookies for. There’s a point to all of it, you know?

    @Donna L

    The Girl Scouts do not actually support Planned Parenthood, and we don’t teach sex ed. This is very important. Girl Scouts doesn’t oppose them either, but there’s a very fine line to walk and so first and foremost our policy has been one of neutrality on anything that is political/controversial/religious. This doesn’t mean we ignore these things; on the contrary, we do have religious troops (e.g. Catholic troop, Jewish troop, etc), we do have troops that cover sex ed (though I think they’ve got to be in high school), and all that. The way it works is that it is up to the troops and it must be explicitly cleared with the parents. The one thing we are really really really firm on that might be considered political is on inclusiveness and being non-discriminatory. A catholic troop could not exclude a muslim girl, though someone would make sure that girl’s parents knew that the troop would be studying/participating in/etc christian programming.

    If there was a troop where most of the girls and parents wanted to work on, oh, a safe sex awareness campaign and one girl’s parents were dead set against it, that girl would not be excluded, but she would not be required to participate, and would be offered (if it was a big issue) placement in another troop.

    I don’t think this is a bad thing. I don’t think GSUSA would ever say it, but it’s pretty clear in their goals that the Girl Scout movement is a feminist one, especially with its emphasis on helping girls become leaders, businesswomen, and to embrace their full potential. I hate it every single time some little girl is pulled out of Girl Scouts because her parents have heard that we send cookie money to fund abortions or that we’re teaching kindergarteners about sex (and abortions, that’s always part of the rumor), or whatever. As my own opinion, and not in an official capacity, I think those girls are in some ways the ones that need us the most. Girl Scouts has always been a subtlety subversive organization- from the very beginning, we taught girls self-sufficiency and the importance of being able to stand up for themselves and others, to think for themselves and value their own opinions, and to embrace sisterhood with girls from all walks of life.

    Because of this, we’re frequent targets of ultra-conservatives, and they target us by accusing us of being in bed with more overtly feminist organizations and causes. These rumors cause a lot of girls to miss out on girl scouts, even when their parents aren’t nearly as conservative. There are a lot of people who fall in a grey area between being pro-choice and pro-life who aren’t necessarily sure they want their daughters taught about it by other people.

    So we walk a fine line and try to stay out of it. This gets Girl Scouts a lot of flak from both sides, but as much as many people may argue it to be core to what we’re doing? Considering that 90% of our girls are in elementary school,it really has little to do with the mission of building girls of courage, confidence, and character. In the long run, teaching them to think for themselves and to be activists for what they believe in will be far far more effective in changing things for the better.

    tl;dr: It’s a trap. The ultra-conservatives have fabricated these sort of rumors out of whole cloth in order to smear the organization. By engaging them by arguing for it, rather than pointing out that it isn’t true, many feminists accidentally add fuel to the fire. I am extremely tired of explaining to crying parents that we don’t actually work with Planned Parenthood to tell their first graders about abortions.

  40. Sorry, but where was she interviewed, EG? I’ll be honest, I’m not looking too hard, but I don’t see anything other than quotes from her video and something from the California Girl Scouts about her name. She’s also part of an organisation called Honest Girl Scouts, which seems to be a Christian fundamentalist group, and they appear to have all the sway, not Taylor. If you can link me to an interview or anything, I would, as I said before, take my response back.

    I can’t find an interview–that was my error, and I’m sorry for it. I was thinking about this quotation from The Christian Post article:

    The girl’s family covered her troop number for the video and did not want her identity to be known due to fear of retribution from the organization, Susan Riedley, editor of HonestGirlScouts.com, initially told The Christian Post in an email. However, the Ventura County, Calif., family had a change of heart and eventually informed CP through Riedley that the girl’s name is Taylor and that she belongs to The Girl Scouts of California’s Central Coast Council.

    It certainly sounds like her family is involved and supportive. Otherwise, why would they be the ones covering her troop number, rather than the girl herself or Honest Girl Scouts? Clearly they were involved with the making of the video.

    parents who indulge the preferences of such children may be causing more harm than good

    As opposed to making them miserable by forcing them to present themselves, refer to themselves, and act in a way that runs counter to their feelings of comfort and identity? As opposed to putting a trans girl in the company of cis boys, thus exposing her to the threat of violence? Yeah, well, should it turn out to be my kid, I’ll take my chances “indulging” his/her “preferences” (Being trans! It’s just like preferring ice cream to green beans! And you know what happens if you indulge such preferences…).

  41. EG, my parents may not give a shit whether I vote for Obama or Ron Paul, but if I were 14, I think they’d give a shit if I was putting up personal information on the internet. I don’t think it implies support or disapproval, just common sense.

  42. Sorry for using a National Rifle Association quote, but they’ll get my Thin Mints when they pry them out of my cold, dead hands.

  43. EG, my parents may not give a shit whether I vote for Obama or Ron Paul, but if I were 14, I think they’d give a shit if I was putting up personal information on the internet.

    Well, my parents wouldn’t have had anything to do with helping me campaign against some poor girl to whose genitalia I objected, so they wouldn’t have been involved in the video, and they wouldn’t have signed off on letting me appear in such a video, and they sure wouldn’t have released my name afterwards, especially if they were so concerned about personal information.

  44. I really, really liked this video response one long-time Girl Scout made:

    //www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCDtaGCjujc&feature=youtu.be

    I’d much rather focus on something as encouraging as this than waste more time trying to shoot down the farfetched theory that the parents of that horrid child aren’t signaling either support or disapproval by allowing her to be the poster girl for the hate campaign orchestrated by two of the most prominent Christian Right media outlets, together with an organization (the Lying Scouts) the sole purpose of which is to vilify the Girl Scouts.

  46. Donna, I think you missed the part where I said “That’s not to say the girl doesn’t look black or white and therefore MUST have immigrant parents like I did…”. My point was that not all parents (immigrant or not) really care what their children are fighting for or against. Sorry if it came off as “she might have immigrant parents, and so…”. I think the baseless speculation about her parents is pointless and unfounded and I don’t get why that minor, reasonable disagreement has caused such a strange, somewhat personal, derail. Can we end it there?

  47. As an aside, can a 7 year old properly be labeled “trans?” The literature I have seen indicates that the vast majority of kids who are diagnosed gender dysphoric turn out not to have that preference later in life (though most turn out gay/bi; sexuality != gender), and that parents who indulge the preferences of such children may be causing more harm than good especially if puberty blockers or hormone treatments are used in adolesence.

    Actually, the use of adult sex hormone blockers in children is very well-known and well-studied, and have been used for decades to treat children with precocious puberty (think 4-year-olds having a menstrual period). Here’s one study: http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/92/5/1697.abstract

    Since there are no major short or long-term side effects to treatment, you can give a trans/questioning child time to mature mentally enough to decide whether or not to medically transition, AND keep their growing bodies from developing the secondary sexual characteristics that are a big part of dysphoria. That translates to better mental health.

  48. I am so proud to have been a member of GSA!! Girl Scouts allow inclusion of lgbt and boys!
    compared with BSA: do not allow girls or gays>> *not to mention the numerous sex scandals involving child rape…
    ~Sexual abuse scandal rocks Boy Scouts of America after $18.5m payout; Organisation accused of cover-up as it seeks to keep thousands of ‘perversion files’ secret
    ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouting_sex_abuse_cases
    so many it will blow your mind.

  49. When I saw this video it just made me want to buy ALL OF THE THIN MINTS! I’m glad I didn’t make some silly new years resolution about losing weight, ’cause I’m gonna gorge myself on some delicious minty trans* inclusion.

  50. I’m so sorry about this comment in advance, but I’ve been googling and I just can’t find the answer. If Jill wants to delete this comment, please do. But, where can I get girl scout cookies in NYC?! Does anyone know?

  51. Do we have to do this again? Really? Didn’t we just have a lengthy comment thread a few weeks ago about the young trans girl in Maine, in which at least one trans woman who’s been posting here regularly for the last several months explained that she was well aware of her transness from the time she was 3 (not that that makes her any more “authentic” than people who didn’t realize it until later), and explained that the one study everyone keeps citing as purported evidence that most children who identify as trans end up changing their minds was authored many years ago by the hateful and loathsome Kenneth Zucker, and is of extremely dubious validity? And that nobody just “indulges the preferences” of trans children — wow, what a loaded phrase that is! — the way they might buy them a new toy?

    She would probably say all this herself if I didn’t happen to know she was sick and tired of having to deal with this sort of expression of “concern,” and of baring her soul to try to persuade people to respect what she and other trans people — of all ages — have to say about themselves.

    Quoted for truth. Thanks, Donna L.

  52. Vigee: Ask co-workers or family members with kids for a start. I also know that a few colleges sometimes let the girl scouts have tables in their common areas during the cookie sales, but I don’t live in New York, and can’t say for certain.

  53. #vigee- on the GSA website, you should be able to look for girl scout sales by zip code, which should direct you to the ny Girl Scout website where you can sign up to be notified of sales.

  54. Pingback: Recovering from the Holidays: Fighting Burnout with the Moveable Middle « Team Girl Gang

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