During a first-aid training session recently, one of my fellow Girl Scout Leaders-in-Training piped up about a potential health concern in her new troop. One of her girls has celiac disease. She has a very severe allergy to all things gluten. The child’s mother said that she wasn’t sure about putting her child into a Daisy Girl Scouts troop because, well, what about all those Girl Scout cookies? The public image of Girl Scouting is so tied up in Girl Scout Cookies that sometimes that’s all people associate them with. Instead of pointing out this non-sequitur, the leader-in-training said something wonderful. She said “We want your child. Girl Scouts is all about cultural pluralism.”
cultural pluralism. noun Sociology.
1. a condition in which minority groups participate fully in the dominant society, yet maintain their cultural differences.
2. a doctrine that a society benefits from such a condition.
I hope that young mother reads her Yahoo news this morning. My husband pointed me to this link, about a young child who was born with boy parts wanting to join the Girl Scouts in his hometown in Colorado. At first, the local leader said “no” because of said boy parts. But up the chain of command, the Colorado leaders did a very amazing and forward-thinking thing: they invited him and his family to join. Because Girl Scouts is an inclusive organization.
I’m proud and awed that this organization that my girls are a part of, that was such a big part of my own childhood and young adulthood, is growing up and opening its doors to families of all types, and supporting the families of transgender children.
Girl Scouting isn’t all about cookies. Or about teaching young cisgendered girls how to become strong cisgendered women. It’s not about turning out cookie-cutter people into society with a boxed set of beliefs and a road-map toward finding a suitable life partner and career. It’s about teaching young people to have a voice, to take action, to make things happen. And to be a part of an experience wherein we not only respect cultural differences but celebrate them.
Hooray for Girl Scouts of Colorado for setting this very public precedent of supporting families with transgendered children.