Conservatives take on Girl Scouts, again

Hold down the fort. Batten down the hatches. Prepare the cannons, because moms in America have declared war.

The targets are an unlikely bunch — Girl Scouts. The young, green-vested cookie peddlers have recently come under fire for their alleged support of abortion activists and sex education. Though representatives from Girl Scouts of America have apologized and maintained a staunchly apolitical position, several pro-life groups are continuing to call for a nationwide boycott of buying Girl Scout cookies.

But this grudge isn’t new. Nay, the wound runs deep. A battle against Girl Scouts has waged for nearly ten years, ever since one fateful day in 2004 when a local branch in Waco, Texas, began supporting a summer sex-ed seminar, Nobody’s Fool.

Deemed “pornographic” and an “assault on Christian morality,” the program ignited a hostile reaction from mothers in the area who, in turn, banded together with local politician and pro-life activist John Pisciotta. Together, they formed a group that sought to bring Girl Scouts’ alleged morality crimes into the public spotlight.

The second strike occurred when the same branch decided to honor a Planned Parenthood manager as a “Woman of Distinction” for her outstanding service to the
community.

The final and most recent straw, oddly enough, was neither a problematic accolade nor a questionable sponsorship, but two seemingly innocuous posts on social media. The
official Girl Scouts of America Twitter merely retweeted a link from the Huffington Post listing the top influential women of the year, which happened to contain an image of women’s health activist Sen. Wendy Davis.

A day later, they made a similarly fateful mistake on Facebook — another prefabricated list of influential women containing United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius sparked outrage within a small community of pro-lifers.

Though the Editorial Board recognizes the importance of maintaining a “family friendly” environment in groups focused toward young people, we believe CookieCott 2014 and those behind it are deeply misguided in their decision to push their agenda onto an organization that has already publicly apologized and denied involvement.

Although one could argue that Girl Scouts’ most recent moves were calculated choices that convey some degree of support for hot topics, we believe their refusal to wholly and publicly embrace conservatism is the most distressing issue for these fringe groups.

Girl Scouts is based on the premise of creating an atmosphere in which girls can feel confident and exhibit strength in whatever path they choose.

By pandering to a small fraction of dissatisfied extremists, this honorable institution would be going against all the values it instills.

These boycotters are focused solely on a non-issue, while ignoring the incredible things Girl Scouts does for communities and young women. They are one of the main advocates of women in STEM careers, creating after-school programs with FIRST Robotics to get girls interested in the sciences.

Similarly, they have a long history of partnership with NASA, which has introduced many young women to the male-dominated field of astrophysics.

Finally, and most ironically, this boycott succeeds in doing what it is actively trying to prevent — bringing “adult issues” into a kid-oriented environment.

By taking something as inoffensive as the annual Girl Scout cookie sale and politicizing it to fit an anti-abortion, abstinence-only agenda, these mothers and their politician mouthpieces have unwittingly brought the discourse of sexuality and women’s health into their own homes.

The children they are fighting so valiantly to shelter are now faced with tough questions with equally tough answers, possibly at ages not conducive to total understanding.
To those boycotting, we implore you to put down your torches and pitchforks, and pick up a delicious box of Thin Mints. Who knows — one chocolaty bite could totally change your perspective.

­— opinion@idsnews.com
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