Last year, I wrote a guest post for the excellent blog Womanist Musings called “Leave the Kids Out of It,” about a brouhaha over gendered Halloween costumes. Now we’ve got another situation where kids are being dragged into adult morality wars.
The Girl Scout Cookie boycott, organized to protest the admission of a trans girl to a Colorado troop, was allegedly conceived by a fourteen-year-old girl, but my guess is that she’s getting her faulty information from somewhere above (and I don’t mean heaven – I mean an adult).
Although I believe that the Colorado girl eventually decided not to join the Scouts (who can blame her after all the negative publicity – she’s seven years old!), the morality police are not going to let the situation rest. They are calling for a boycott of Girl Scout cookies this year because, unlike the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts organization wants every child to have a chance to participate in scouting.
I have always had mixed feelings about boycotts. In many cases, they hurt the very people who they’re trying to help. Boycotting an entire state over an anti-LGBT or anti-immigration law hurts LGBT business owners or the immigrants in that state who are struggling to make a living. But boycotts do work, and sometimes they lead to very successful outcomes for those who were wronged.
In this case, however, the boycott involves more than just a multimillion-dollar organization receiving some kind of “message” from the morality police. It involves little children who were not involved in the Colorado troop’s decision (which was the right one, by the way). It involves little children who approach their friends and neighbors, or who set up shop outside of grocery stores, or who send their mom or dad to work with an order sheet and then thrill to the long list of purchasers at the end of the day.
It involves little children who are trying to have fun, learn something, and do something good for themselves and their community. It makes me sick to think of the disappointed faces on these little girls when they are turned away by adults who should know better than to fight their moral battles using innocent kids. The “collateral damage” in this morality war is heartbreaking.
Boycotters: you might or might not hurt the Girl Scouts organization by refusing to buy cookies this year – but you will hurt some little kids who have done nothing to you and who don’t yet understand your misdirected hate. I hope those of us who care more about children than about some invented moral crisis more than make up for the lost revenue of your boycott. I haven’t bought Girl Scout cookies in years, but this year, I plan to buy as many boxes as I can afford.
I’m not going to walk past the children in front of the grocery store. I’m not going to turn away little girls who ask me to buy cookies. If I have to sacrifice my grocery bill to help right this horrible wrong that you boycotters are inflicting on these children, then I will eat nothing but Girl Scout cookies for a month.
And to those parents who forbid their daughters to sell cookies this year as part of the boycott, shame on you! Why would you punish your daughter for something that she had no part in and probably doesn’t even understand?
Adults, fight your own battles! Stop using the kids to fight them for you. You want to talk about morality? Drafting children as soldiers in your morality wars is the most immoral thing of all.
Readers, I encourage you to buy Girl Scout cookies if you can. Even one box makes up for one box the boycotters don’t buy. And let me (a former Brownie and Girl Scout) know your thoughts.
Buck Angel talks about the Girl Scout cookie boycott on YouTube:
Matt,
Thank you for the brilliant article. I must say I nearly cried with pride and joy when I had heard that GSA and GGI had backed the little girl who just wanted to be a scout. The fact of the matter being that no prospective scout is examined to ensure “proper” physical sex/gender prior to or at any time during their tenure as a member of GS/GG.
I am also a proud alumnist of GS, having been a Cadet and Senior scout myself (Not to mention I wore a mens suit and tie to my bridge ceremony and no-one said a thing). It was a great experience to me and helped to foster my ideals of service and community involvement not to mention self reliance and environmental awareness.
I have done precious little in my life that tied me to my assigned sex, this is one thing I’m proud that I did.
I may be a boy, but I graduated a decorated Girl Scout.
I plan to join you in your “diet” of Girl Scout Cookies and will be urging all those I meet to do the same.
I buy at least one box every year and this year the only thing that will now change is that I’ll be buying a lot of boxes.
Adults who fight their wars by using children are the worst (and most dangerous because they’ll obviously stop at nothing) cowards.
As far as I can tell, the boycott is going to tank horribly. Everyone that I have bumped into and many people that I have found online seems to think that the solution is to buy as many girl scout cookies as they can afford. Admittedly, I live on a college campus and in a super liberal town, but… It makes me happy that so many people are willing to stand up for what the Girl Scouts do.
We buy cookies every year, however this year I plan on stocking up BIG time.
Matt, that picture is making me hungry . . .
I’ll be doubling my order this year – which will make my friend, Phil, and his daughters very happy, I’m sure. By the way, if someone tells you they’d like to help but can’t eat all those cookies (like myself, I’m diabetic), let them know that the organization offers an option to donate the cookies to our troops. This is what I do every year – one box for me and the rest to our soldiers. This year the soldiers will be getting even more cookies from me.
It’s a win-win-win situation: the girls will benefit, the soldiers will benefit and the cause will benefit. Let’s fight the good fight, people.
Well i am now on a quest to purchase girl scout cookies! Yeah to the GSUSA for allowing the trangendered child to join a troop. I was a girl scout. My experience wasnt quite as good as some others, but I did sell cookies and really enjoyed the camp outs.
I know this isn’t trans or boycott specific, but, personally, I’m against the girl scout cookie thing/sale in GENERAL.
(1) Where I’ve lived, the girls don’t really sell the cookies anymore. The parents do. Sometimes local stores ‘help out’ with displays & tables for adults AND kids. More often, it’s workplace facilitated. My rule in the past was that I would never purchase from an adult or a child who was being forced or prompted by an adult. The worst offender? A parent who brings sign up sheet to the employee lounge. How is this a girl scout cookie sale?
Occasionally, a rare age appropriate child would come to work with Mom or Dad and demonstrate some level of participation that made it about her learning something (usually to speak confidently to someone about the cookies and sale) or otherwise participating in the activity. In those cases, I would buy, but this is very uncommon AND there is no pressure or guilt that you MUST buy.
You mention “little children…who send their mom or dad to work with an order sheet and then thrill to the long list of purchasers at the end of the day.”
Honestly, this is what *usually* hapens, and I think this is a serious symptom of a helicopter parent society gone wrong. Why should a child thrill to the list of purchasers procurred by mom and dad? The moral: Mom and Dad do your work for you, and you get to reap the reward, like they are Santa Claus.
(2) The cookies are terribly unhealthy. I get that cookies are “sometimes” food. But I don’t want to buy something that I don’t want to be eating out of guilt or the desire to “reward” a child. Sometimes, you’d be better off just writing a check for the organization. (which I realize you can do, but the whole cookie sale is premised on “buy more boxes of unhealthy stuff”). If we’re trying to instill a sense of business social responsibility, wouldn’t it be better to sell something that’s not proven to be so bad for you? [And the whole "fund raising bake sale" thing has gotten quite out of hand in general.]
(3) The whole “girls sell cookies” thing is based on some pretty archane sexist notions about what it means for a girl to be industrious and learn self-confidence, speaking in public, sales & math, etc. I know that the girl scouts have changed since I was a kid to support the idea that girls can do anything, but then why is the core activity that they promote and are identified with still cookie selling?
So I’ve stopped buying the cookies for the most part anyway. I hope no one thinks I’m boycotting due to LGBT messages!
THANK YOU Matt. In years past, I have tended not to buy cookies but this year will be different. From the inception of this boycott I have planned on not only buying cookies but also discretely telling the adults who are chaperoning how much I appreciate the inclusiveness of the GSA. No, I am not going to ell them that I am a member of the LGBT community as I do not see this as necessary in the delivering of my message.
All of my Facebook Friends–and quite a few others–have decided that the best way to handle this threatened boycott is to buy even more GS cookies than you ever have in the past. Our goal? To make this a record year for sales of GS cookies. Oh, and my friends who support this idea the most are all like me–proud and out members of the transgender community, as well as our supporters and friends.
I always support the GSA. A “cookie mom” I know even told me that you can donate the money without buying the cookies to the GSA. As someone who is forced to watch her weight ( how I envy you men) I don’t eat the cookies. I liked the idea that Captlex put forward of buying the cookies but having them sent to our service people. I am going to find out about that. I too was a scout, a cub scout and boy scout, how I wished to be a brownie and girl scout. The idea of boycotting an organization becasue they are don’t discriminate, how crazy is that?
yes, there are GS troops that send cookies to our service men and women or donate to a locate charity if they can’t afford the shipping. We are fortunate to have people that help us with the shipping
Oh the mixed feelings here and the anger! I was livid when I first heard about this bullshit boycott. Asshats! And like you said, why are they doing this to these kids?!
AnyHOO -we have a friend who has two daughters, both sell cookies, he helps but does NOT do all the work for them. I usually poll my adult kids, then place an order. And we all eat cookies, far more than we “should” of course, whatever, we can have salads for lunch next month. This year, I’ll do that, but I will also buy a box from every Girl Scout who shows up on my porch, and every one I see in front of every store in town.
We are going to donate more boxes than we will eat this year (helping the homeless organizations, family treatment facilities, AA groups, as well as the military folks like CaptLex suggested all welcome gifts like this) but we are damn well going to do our part to support an organization which is willing to welcome ALL children.
Julie
You all are right on with this issue. This is the first I’ve heard of this. Kudos to the scout troop who admitted the trans girl!
Now, the boycotters. Are we suurprised at what the bigots do??? They don’t give a rat’s ass who they hurt in promoting their agenda of HATE! Has anyone been following the ilk that are being fed to the people in the form of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination? They’ve been trashing LGBT and womens right to choose abortion big time. They all make me want to puke. Hateful scum who don’t care who they hurt – all of us in the LGBT community. And that includes us Trans folks. They are hypicrites who just care about their hate. They sure aren’t going to care if they hurt some kids selling Girl Scout cookies!
I haven’t found any GS cookie sellers out this year and they don’t come door to door like they did in the 1950s and 60s. If I run into any, I’ll be sure to buy a box of cookies from them!
Ordered a crapload of cookies this year. They freeze beautifully.
I normally do not purchase Girl Scout cookies, because they do not have any vegan options– but, this year, I will purchase a few boxes and set them out for coworkers in my workplace lunch room, with a brief note expressing the Colorado troop’s decision and my support of GS, and urging them to purchase and support as well. Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention, Matt!
We, too, are buying extra cookies this year, as are most of the members of my church’s Women’s Book Club. As Amaya said, they freeze beautifully. (And while the Caramel deLites/Samoas need to thaw first, frozen Thin Mints are very yummy.)
I sold cookies for years, and I’m actually glad when an adult at work comes in with a daughter’s order form; there aren’t a lot of Girl Scouts in my neighborhood. I did door-to-door, I did “sending the form in with mom”, I did the booth at the mall, and, once I was in high school, I did “bringing string bags full of cookie boxes to school every day”. (That last one worked really, really well.) That money allowed our troop to do some things we’d never have been able to do otherwise.
IIf anyone ever tries to use my kids to fight their battles, I am going to be one angry Mommy.
I hope the 7 year old girl here in my homestate and her family learn that there are PLENTY of people who will go buy as many cookies as we can. GOOD FOR GIRLSCOUTS.
We ordinarily buy a few boxes and then store them in the freezer to take out as treats.
This year, we have shifted money in the budget it order to buy lots and lots of boxes. Might have to get a new freezer, but worth it to do our part to make sure the boycott turns into a bonanza for the Girl Scouts.
An excuse to buy more Samoas? Well THAT didn’t take much, did it?!
Grace
As a current Girl Scout Leader I welcome EVERYONE in my troop! I love Girl Scout Cookies healthy or not. The way I see it is anyone is welcome to start a troop and if a “family” is going to be upset for a troop leader accepting an individual because they are not “born female” then that family can start their own troop! Its not mine or ANY other troop leaders job to check the genitals of any child. If they say their a girl and the parents say they are then thats good enough for me. People need to take into consideration the feeling of these kids. If Boy Scouts wont except “gay” or transgrender” children and now you dont want to girl scouts too. Where can these children go. Maybe these “Girl Scouts” need to refresh on the Girl Scout Promise and Law.
GS troop Leader,
I read your comment and you are so wonderful!! These kids who have the disorder of GID go thru heck. To be accepted as the person they know they are is so wonderful for them. I can relate, I grew up as one of those kids. I knew I was a little girl, but no one else did. My parents of course didn’t know ( I am a boomer) so they would yell scream at me. I grew up most unhappy. My dad got to know his youngest daughter for the last 15 yrs of life. His youngest daughter made him very proud of her. Thank you for being so understanding.
The Girl Scout’s were outside the grocery store yesterday, so after asking the one mother if she knew of the boycott and informing her of why I was going to buy cookies this year, I thanked her for having her daughter in such a kind and truly inclusive organization. I’ll be donating the boxes that I bought to my classmates.
Here’s some updated info on the Colorado scout who was the unfortunate subject of all the ruckus:
As per TransYouth Family Allies: TransYouth Family Allies (TYFA) has launched a web page to assist a transgender new Girl Scout and her troop with their annual cookie drive. Bobby Montoya, the girl in question, is now a member of a newly formed Girl Scout Troop that is taking donations to send cookies to a home for abused and neglected children and to active-duty servicemembers. Get more information at TransYouth Family Allies.
Thanks to a reader for sending me this info.
Cool . . . I’m sharing this with my friends.
I have been a Girl Scout since the age of five and earned my Gold Award. I am still an extremely active volunteer. Thank you for promoting what I have been calling the BUYcott. We should all be supporting such an open and compassionate organization!
Randi, We can’t change the mentality of ignorant people in this world. But we can make a world of a difference in a childs life. Im sorry that you had a challenging upbringing. Being that im from the California, San Francisco Bay Area being a proud Gay, Lesbian, or Transgender is a little more socially acceptable in society then other parts of U.S. Hopefully with every box of cookies sold that’s a foot forward in changing and bringing peace to such a sensitive subject.
I did find GS cookies being sold outside my grocery store and boought a box to share at our LGBT Democratic party club meeting this week. I didn’t mention the boycott because i didn’t know enough about it to talk intelligently about it.