Opinion: Girl Scouts Arouse Right-Wing Ire

Some conservative and Christian groups are calling for action against Girl Scouts of the USA over alleged links with Planned Parenthood and a Colorado troop’s acceptance of a female-identified transgender girl, according to a Salon opinion piece.

Mary Elizabeth Williams, a writer for the online magazine, says an eastern Louisiana Scouts organization was dissolved because parents did not consider its statement affirming a girls-only policy in the wake of the Colorado incident to have been strong enough. She also cites a call by a senior fellow at the conservative Family Research Council for a boycott of Girl Scout cookies and a Virginia Catholic church’s ban on Scouts using its property.

“The [national] Girl Scouts encourage a laudable level of autonomy at the regional and troop level, and to that end, permit conversations about sex education and admissions policies,” Ms. Williams writes. “Yet the possibility that a troop somewhere might be discussing something as incendiary as teen pregnancy, or might allow a transgendered child the pleasure of earning a few Try It badges, is so horrifying to some that the boycott talk is underway.”