The Right-Wing War On a Transgender Girl Scout

[xchrom]

http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/religious-right-calls-girl-scout-cookie-boycott

Three Girl Scout troops in Louisiana won't be hawking Thin Mints this year. They've disbanded in protest after the Girl Scouts of Colorado accepted seven-year-old transgender child Bobby Montoya as a member. Montoya was born a boy but has considered herself a girl since she was two years old, says her mom Felisha Archuleta. In October, Archuleta took her daughter to speak with a Denver troop leader about signing up, and took her daughter away crying after the Scout leader referred to the child as "it" and said "Everyone will know he's a boy." Three weeks later, the statewide Girl Scouts body issued a statement saying, "If a child identifies as a girl and the child's family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout." When they heard about this reversal, three moms and troop leaders in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana decided to dissolve their troops and leave Girl Scouts.

Now, 95 years after the organization first starting selling cookies, its signature product has once again become a political pawn. Right-wing groups and some conservative parents and scouts have posted to a site called Honest Girl Scouts, YouTube, and Facebook pages—including one called "Make Girl Scouts Clean Again"—urging Girl Scouts everywhere to go on strike from selling cookies, and their parents to stop buying them. They want Girl Scouts USA to officially bans transgender children from membership, and kick out any known transgender scouts "hiding" in the troops.

[Zenlitened]

1. This is no war, because the bigots are vastly, vastly outnumbered...

... by the kind, and generous and insightful among the Girl Scouts everywhere.

I wish MoJo and other news organizations would resist the urge to elevate to grand conflict level, what is merely the clattering of a few useless relics, falling by the wayside as progress -- and progressive society -- marches on.

[xchrom]

2. huh. not the way i see it --

we die because of retrograde notions about us.

[Zenlitened]

10. I understand what you're saying, I honestly do. And maybe...

... maybe it's just my own wishful thinking that the story should be "Vast, Near-Unanimous Numbers in Girl Scouts Community Are Totally Cool."

Which is true, but doesn't sell newspapers, as we used to say.

I do think it's time, or nearly time, for reporters and editors to react to the bigoted fringe by saying, basically, "Eh, whatever. That's not a story," and move on to something else.

We're beginning to see this, ever so slowly, in coverage of marriage equality.

There's less and less ink/air-time/electrons devoted to the the bigots, even when the reporter is looking for "balance" in the story.

There's some growing recognition that this 'phobic crap is not balancing the perspective at all. And the sanctimonious hate-aholics can just STFU already.

All that said, I do see your point. I'm just being grouchy and impatient, I guess. Been pushing for newsroom reform for a long time.

Plus, I'm down to my last row of Thin Mints.

[rms013]

9. If only it were that simple.

I would agree accept I look at these things like I would look at a cancer. It starts out small and if you don't nip it in the bud it takes over the host.
You are confusing a progressive populace with a progressive society. Evidence abounds if you just look at the OWS movements. Progressive societies don't: Have indefinite detention, invade countries (illegally) for resources, spy on it's citizens, create a police state, incarcerate more people than any other in the world, fail to fulfill basic human needs yet fund the largest and most expensive military in the world, tie a persons wealth to their ability to get justice, openly allow and support the corruption of government by corporate interests while at the same time blame the poor for the economic crisis, hold no one accountable for lying to go to war or creating the largest oil spill on earth, or polluting our water supply's, or declare corporations are people.

[Initech]

3. I feel bad for that kid.

Wanting to be part of a group (and what kid doesn't) has not only sparked a national controversy but has brought out the worst in humanity (especially the bigots) on top of that. Is there no safe haven anymore?

[joeybee12]

4. So if I buy thin mints a girl scout gets an abortion?

That's what I'm getting from that illustration at the bottom.


They're so stupid it really does hurt.

[xchrom]

5. and makes kitty cats sad. nt

[joeybee12]

7. And that makes me sad!

[xchrom]

8. poor kitties!11

pass the kleenex, please.

[BlueState]

6. If that is the agenda that GS Cookies fund...

... put me down for another 10 boxes!