How to support trans girl scouts

January 14, 2024 2:42 AM

Did you know that for a long time, Girl Scouts has openly included transgender and nonbinary individuals in its membership? I first learned of this three years ago while searching for a source for my annual Girl Scout cookie purchase. At that time, a wave of anti-trans sentiment was intensifying, prompting me to seek out transgender Girl Scouts from whom to order. One major benefit of their online ordering system is that it allows for trans girl scouts to sell their cookies with relative privacy and no contact between the scout and the purchaser when it comes to online orders. ... the kids are under attack this year more than ever, so let's give them some joy. Erin Reed on where to get your cookies.
posted by Bella Donna (31 comments total)

This is a small good thing, and it made me happy that these kids have a support network in a bigger organisation. I hope each of them achieves their goals, big or small.
posted by prismatic7 at 3:07 AM on January 14 [6 favorites]

Yay! This is awesome.

This is also a great place to remind everyone that even though the Boy Scouts now claim to welcome girls into special girl troops, they still have a prohibition against trans scouts, and trans and non-binary kids will not be welcomed by the national org in either Boy Scout troops or their special girl troops. Don't let a century of sexism make you think Boy Scouts are better. Girl Scouts USA is an awesome org that loves and supports all girls and non-binary kids.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:13 AM on January 14 [52 favorites]

I was a Girl Scout leader for several years, and also a Service Unit Manager (which is essentially a leaders' leader for your local area of troops). Being a SU Manager meant I went to periodic meetings for the entire chapter, for me that was GS of Greater Chicago and Northern Indiana. As you can imagine, that cuts across a very very large population of people. The chapter did a really good job of mixing us up so that every table and every event had leaders from vastly different troop experiences getting to talk to each other.

So it was both very funny and heart achingly wonderful when one of the rural troop leaders saw my name tag and said "Oh good! You're from the city! I need to talk to someone who knows these things!" and proceeded to pepper me for advice on how to talk to her leaders about trans kids and what the right language was to use, because (and it's been a while so this isn't a direct quote, but it's the gist of it) she had never met any transgender people but with the "way things are these days" it was bound to happen, and that kid was going to have a good time in her Service Unit if she had anything to do about it!

This was about 8 or 9 years ago. GSUSA is good people.
posted by phunniemee at 4:36 AM on January 14 [97 favorites]

Oh! How cool! We’ve sort-of aged-out from having close friends/relatives to get our cookie fix from. This is an awesome resource. Thanks!

I’d genuinely love to know how the GSUSA has largely avoided falling into the crosshairs of the right-wing hate machine. I’m sure there are examples of some anti-woke knuckle-dragger making trouble for a local troop, but I can’t say I’ve seen or heard anything nationally.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:33 AM on January 14 [4 favorites]

These comments make me so, so happy! Thanks so much. phunniemee, your comment is flagged as fantastic. hydropsyche, I had no idea. Since I am living in Sweden, I don't have exposure to Girl Scouts and never belonged. It's great to hear that girls of all sorts are getting support in that group. Yay!
posted by Bella Donna at 6:51 AM on January 14

This is great! Because of financial and calorie constraints, I could only order cookies from one girl scout. So difficult to choose!!!!! I finally decided to buy from a seven-year-old raising money for her troop's first camping trip, but I hope they are all successful in reaching their goals.
posted by pangolin party at 7:02 AM on January 14 [5 favorites]

Trapped in cookie-less London! I'd order Thin Mints and Samoas from all these gals if I could. I'm so glad the organisation is supporting them.

(Having ordered the Thin Mints, I'd put them in the freezer, of course. The proper place for Thin Mints is in the freezer, where you do your best to forget about them till summer. The joy of a frozen Thin Mint on a hot July day is worth the wait.)
posted by Pallas Athena at 7:10 AM on January 14 [19 favorites]

> Did you know that for a long time, Girl Scouts has openly included transgender and nonbinary individuals in its membership?

Yes, because my troop has -- and continues to have -- many! It's great to see how truly supportive my local council, GSWW, is to trans and nonbinary youth. One parent in my troop found out that their kid was nonbinary when I offered around some GSWW pronoun pins and the young person put a "they / them" pin on their vest.

This is our final year as a troop, as the youth are graduating, so I'm not attempting to sell you cookies. Thank you for this list, and thank you supporting Girl Scouting!
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:34 AM on January 14 [17 favorites]

Dang, the shipping cost killed it for me. I guess it's back to the imitation thin mints from the corner Bodega.
posted by Czjewel at 8:42 AM on January 14 [2 favorites]

If we're flaunting cred, I have my gold award (equivalent to Eagle Scout, and yes, I wrote that phrase kn my college apps). Also, for older girls, it used to be called "Wider Opportunities ", but now the program is https://www.girlscouts.org/en/members/for-girl-scouts/ways-to-participate/Travel/destinations.html. Highly recommend those opportunities; I once spent a month backpacking Isle Royal at 13.
posted by atomicstone at 9:15 AM on January 14 [9 favorites]

Mind blown yet again, this time by The corpse in the library and atomicstone. Y'all rock.
posted by Bella Donna at 9:17 AM on January 14 [2 favorites]

atomic stone--I spent a week dogsledding, xc skiing, and winter camping in the Boundary Waters in MN in January as a Wider Opportunity. Still one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life.
posted by hydropsyche at 9:22 AM on January 14 [5 favorites]

Aw, some of those kids just sound so cute.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:22 AM on January 14 [2 favorites]

I did boundary waters too!!!
posted by atomicstone at 10:07 AM on January 14 [3 favorites]

Love it!
posted by neuron at 12:21 PM on January 14 [1 favorite]

I never was a Girl Scout, but in my 20s I dated a woman who worked for the state GSA organization. One autumn, she invited me to go along on a weekend trip to a scout camp that she and her friends did every year when the scouts were done camping. Many of these women had been involved in scouts since childhood. Lesbians, of course. I had a great time, and, although I didn't know any of the campfire songs, enjoyed getting a taste of why girl scouting matters so much to so many.

This is a great resource, thanks. I've passed it around a bit.
posted by Well I never at 12:30 PM on January 14 [3 favorites]

i wait for erin's list each time it's cookie season and then buy a TON of boxes across multiple scouts. go make some trans girls happy! :)
posted by secret about box at 12:02 AM on January 15 [3 favorites]

Mod note: [btw, this post has been added to the sidebar and Best Of blog! 🍪]
posted by taz (staff) at 3:50 AM on January 15 [4 favorites]

One nice things about Reed's list is that it's sourcing via the GSA from the local supplier, so it a) doesn't eff with GSA supplier relations, & b) allows the Caramel De-Lites & Samoa lovers to each get what they want. (They really are different.)
posted by lodurr at 4:18 AM on January 15 [2 favorites]

Speaking of BSA, I was in a high adventure "troop" in high school. Co-ed, backpacking fun.
posted by atomicstone at 11:35 AM on January 15

It's GSUSA, FYI, not GSA.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:34 PM on January 15 [1 favorite]

I get Erin's emails, and find them a great source of both warning and inspiration. This one had a trans Eagle Scout in tears.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 4:43 PM on January 15 [6 favorites]

This is progress, and progress is incremental. But no one is free while others are oppressed, and I feel like girl scouts are still being implicitly taught that it's ok to exploit others to achieve their goals. Organic and fair trade and direct trade and things like that are all very accessible in this age. People are obsessed with girl scout cookies, selling a more ethical cookie would not be a hard sell.
posted by aniola at 1:12 PM on January 16 [2 favorites]

I feel like girl scouts are still being implicitly taught that it's ok to exploit others to achieve their goals

You can feel this all you'd like but you would be incorrect.
posted by phunniemee at 2:50 PM on January 16 [4 favorites]

hydropsyche: Yeah, the Boy Scouts are tangled up with all kinds of horrible right-wing groups, the Mormons in particular, and as an organization they are really fucking reactionary. Nobody should support them at all, tbh.
posted by adrienneleigh at 12:36 AM on January 17 [2 favorites]

"palm oil is bad and so is capitalism, so let's just shit all over supporting trans kids in a system they have to exist in and have zero control over."

for fuck's sake, if you want to go directly to trans kids instead of supporting the bakeries? instead of dead donkeying this then why don't you post some links to fucking mutual aid then? like: transanta or equality texas or these support groups or this to help pay for affirming care. trawl the remnants of twitter or scour google and reddit and bsky for more.

but yeah, it's easier to just scold people for wanting to help some fucking trans kids over some tiny fucking cookies at $5 a pop, because lord knows those little entitled shits have got it so fucking easy right now with their care being banned and being excluded from sport and being told to pee in the wrong bathrooms and being bullied by grown adults as well as terrible peers and being told they're abonimations and monsters worse than nuclear annihilation by everyone from the church to their aunts and uncles at thanksgiving and every other holiday and regular day of the year.
posted by i used to be someone else at 9:27 AM on January 17 [9 favorites]

~scratchy AM radio noise~

The new list of exemptions from state-enforced oppression for trans girls has just been released.
The following achievements qualify:

--something so unassailable, only a 12th-century Catholic saint of legend could possibly lay claim to it. But laying claim to it would immediately disqualify her for being too uppity.

Now, the latest scores.
posted by tigrrrlily at 9:43 AM on January 17 [2 favorites]

Mod note: A few comments deleted. Let's avoid derails about the ethics of consumption (Organic, Fair Trade, Palm Oil) in a thread about the well being of trans kids.
posted by loup (staff) at 12:44 PM on January 17 [6 favorites]

I understand the passion but no one has suggested that trans kids are entitled little shits, and it is unkind and inaccurate to suggest anything like that. Thanks for the additional links, those are awesome.
posted by Bella Donna at 12:11 AM on January 18 [2 favorites]

"Suggest" is such an interesting word. It's what some people here heard, through ears tuned for picking up on transmisogyny. Stuff's everywhere.
posted by tigrrrlily at 8:46 AM on January 18 [4 favorites]

i mean, a few comments were deleted providing significantly more context, and it is hardly unkind to be uncharitable when no charity is given or to use hyperbole for effect.

but instead of litigating this and throwing up a defense of some people shitting in the punch bowl because a particular mostly unrelated issue isn't suitably address, let's focus again on the whole point of the thread, which is either:
- buying cookies from trans kids who are girl scouts, or
- posting mutual aid links for trans people, preferably kids, because while one cannot bear to make the morally fraught choice of buying girl scout cookies, one is completely okay with the moral fraught choice of using modern payment systems
posted by i used to be someone else at 1:41 PM on January 18 [5 favorites]