Cookies

Now, I have a fairly liberal bent when it comes to people being left well enough alone. But I also feel, rather strongly, that people should generally be treated decently.

It was recently brought to my attention that a Girl Scout, I will hesitate to call her misguided, in California is looking to start a "Cookie Boycott" in response to a Colorado Girl Scout council, allowing one transgender youth into the program. The horror!

Huff Post does the article some justice here

Now, as I stated before, I like to see people generally being left well enough alone. If you're a council member, and you don't want your children to associate with any other member of the organization be it a question of race, color, sexual orientation, or shoe size, fine, you don't have to participate. That's your choice. The point being, you can chose your level of involvement. You don't get to determine anyone else's level of involvement. That's not right, and it's not fair.

As a rule the GSA (Girl Scouts of America) don't have a hard and fast rule on the inclusion of GLBT youth, or volunteers in the org. Fine, what they do have is a stated policy to not discriminate. Great! I'm not looking for a list of what you do, and don't allow, a simple statement that you keep an open mind is leaps and bounds ahead of other, less enlightened, scouting organizations.

The Boy Scouts have a codified policy of discrimination, both in terms of religion (no atheists) and sexual orientation, and I frankly don't support them, ever, in any way.

If my son, should I ever have one, were to show an interest in scouting I'd rather take him camping myself, then expose him to an organization that in 2012 feels that it's acceptable to codify discrimination.