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Support the Scouts for being inclusive
Nothing makes me want to buy Girl Scout cookies like reading that a fourteen year old Girl Scout is demanding a national boycott against them, because the Girl Scouts allow transgender children to join the Scouts. In other words, if I may sum this up in a nutshell, "You should stop buying cookies because I am hateful and ignorant." Taylor (no last name given due to privacy concerns) claims that "the organization is using cookie proceeds to push a radical homosexual agenda at the expense of Scouts' safety."
So much wrong with that statement:
- There's nothing "radical" about allowing girls into the Girl Scouts, regardless of their birth gender.
- "Transgender" is not the same thing as "homosexual."
- The idea that the Girl Scouts are selling cookies in order to finance "a radical homosexual agenda" is a preposterous, overheated, homophobic conspiracy theory.
- Transgender scouts are not a threat to the safety of cisgender Scouts.
Isn't it interesting the way we can politicize a simple dessert? It's just an innocent little cookie. Delicious, if perhaps a bit overpriced. But now it's on the frontline of A Battle For The Hearts And Minds Of Americans.
I predict that the primary effect of this "boycott" will be to increase cookie sales. I always avoid the Girl Scouts when they set up a table in front of the grocery store. The last thing I need is an entire box of pricey cookies. But this year I will be going out of my way to buy cookies, specifically in order to support an organization that espouses tolerance towards the transgendered.
Transgender issues are the next forefront of human rights. It's still considered acceptable to express ignorant fear and prejudice against the transgendered. Just look at the huge national panic over Chaz Bono's appearance on "Dancing With The Stars." These protests only serve to make the protesters expose their ugly, ignorant, hateful hearts.
There is no down side to admitting transgendered children into the Girl Scouts. Gender is just a social construct. Unless you want to restrict membership to "people who were born with vaginas," and how would you check that, exactly? And more to the point, WHY would you check that?
It's time for us to grow up and realize that people are different, but they all deserve the same rights and fundamental respect. It's time for us to stop making cookies fight our battles. And darned if it isn't time to go buy a few extra boxes of Samoas, just to show your support.
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