Girlscouts and Transgender Members

[zibber]

We had this happen when I was growin up.

It was weird. "Her" parents were taken aside and understood it wasn't the right place.\

You say that as if it's normal to call a transgender person weird and it's completely logical they be kept out of a group.

Neither is in fact the case.

[Squaz]

Children can't have sex changes. I don't see the point.

When I was in girl scouts, we had instances when we joked around about our privates.

Seeing a penis would have been gross. Boys can't pretend to nurse babies either.

[lillerina]

Boys can't pretend to nurse babies either.

Sure they can. Little boys have about as much breast tissue as little girls.

Transphobia is not allowed here. The little girl mentioned in the OP is a girl, and there is no reason that she should not have been allowed into the girl scouts.

[zibber]

Children can't have sex changes. I don't see the point.

When I was in girl scouts, we had instances when we joked around about our privates.

Seeing a penis would have been gross. Boys can't pretend to nurse babies either.

We have a pretty immature culture when it comes to sex and "the sexes". That is what needs to change. That is at the root of all of these horrible misunderstandings. It's so simple. What you are doing here is just taking the reactionary point of view, defending the way things are now because you are so used to that.

[Squaz]

What's immature is for someone else to believe I'm afraid of trannies. Girl scouts are about having a comfortable atmosphere where you can share things that are definitely in common. Comfort isn't about fear.

Boys don't grow breasts as they get older either. Sorry that didn't work out for you but that's puberty.

[Ama]

So it would be better for 1 girl to be exposed to a dozen little boy penises as opposed to the reverse? That's what you're saying? You're right, I definitely can see how that would promote a greater sense of comfort in both environments.

[Axiomatic]

Boys don't grow breasts as they get older either.

So what you're saying is that pretend breast feeding only works if your prepubescent breasts are receiving time-travelling breastmilk from the future.

[Squaz]

So it would be better for 1 girl to be exposed to a dozen little boy penises as opposed to the reverse? That's what you're saying? You're right, I definitely can see how that would promote a greater sense of comfort in both environments.

I don't think a dozen little boys would be willing to show off their junk to a girl lol.

Tomboys are comfortable with that anyway. Ordinary girls take time to grow into it.

I think if anyone would really be uncomfortable it would be the BOY in the GIRL scout troop. LOL.

[rowan]

No, a trans person is the gender that they identify with. So that GIRL would feel much more uncomfortable in BOY scouts. In addition, Boy Scouts are notoriously horrible about LGBT issues.

I think you need to learn a lot more about transgender people and stop with the transphobia here. Which, as lil points out, is not acceptable.

[monk]

Boys don't grow breasts as they get older either. Sorry that didn't work out for you but that's puberty.

This is probably going to disturb your worldview Squaz, but if the need arises Men can lactate too.

[Squaz]

No, a trans person is the gender that they identify with. So that GIRL would feel much more uncomfortable in BOY scouts. In addition, Boy Scouts are notoriously horrible about LGBT issues.

I think you need to learn a lot more about transgender people and stop with the transphobia here. Which, as lil points out, is not acceptable.

I didn't have any problems when hanging out with Boy Scouts.

I think you need to realize I'm not afraid of trannies. We have Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts for the same reason we have male and female bathrooms. Taking emotional pride in sexuality to cultivate gender is not excluded.

What you're suggesting is no different from trying to condition gays and lesbians straight.

[lillerina]

Squaz, take a time out. Your hate speech is not welcome here.

[monk]

We have Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts for the same reason we have male and female bathrooms. Taking emotional pride in sexuality to cultivate gender is not excluded.

What you're suggesting is no different from trying to condition gays and lesbians straight.

No, we have Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts because when Girls Scouts was founded women weren't even allowed to vote much less have girls join a "boys club" of any sort. We've mature a little since then, but we have some more maturing to do yet.

Ideally someday the boys & girls scouting organizations will combine into The Scouts but much like the military traditional organizations cling to tradition long after society has outmoded their behavior.

[Ama]

Squaz, before posting in this thread any more you should take the time to note that:

1. Lillerina is a moderator of this forum, and in this particular instance should be treated as one.
2. "Trannies" is pretty much an inherently offensive term the way you're using it, whether you mean for it to be heard negatively or not. Try to use a more appropriate term here.
3. Spacefem is big on LGBT rights, having numerous members here that fit under that umbrella (I myself would fall under the T branch, though you wouldn't know it by looking at me) and doesn't appreciate slights of that nature, intentional or otherwise. So please keep that in mind before you start pissing people off as badly as Daktoria did!

[LunchBox]

This is probably going to disturb your worldview Squaz, but if the need arises Men can lactate too.

That is an awesome link/concept.

[Morsel Muncher]

I always wanted to be a Boy Scout. Our Girl Scout troop leader was frankly a bitch, and all we ever did was sew and cook. But the Boy Scouts got to go hiking and camping for real, and aren't discouraged from climbing trees. And stuff like that.

Me too. My brother was a boy scout and he went on kayaking trips, learned how to build fires, camped in tents, learned about nature... while we learned how to sew and bake cookies and volunteer for all kinds of stupid things. I hated it so much. I suffered through girls scouts because I thought earning the gold award would be beneficial to me. But I just ended up quitting before then because the girls in my group were all in a "clique" together and did not want to talk to me... I didn't get it... and I just felt left out of everything..and looked down upon because my family wasn't as well off as theirs. I think the girl scouts are sexist and mean... why are girls always forced to learn home making skills?

[Tookie]

I was in Girl Guides (in Canada) from grade 5 through 12, and while it's a separate organization from Girl Scouts, we did far more camping than home-making. I learnt how to build fires, pitch and strike tents (which I can now do faster than anyone I know, thanks to one leader making us refold a tent three times in pouring rain until it fit in its bag properly - did you know there's only one right way to roll up a tent?), winter camp, mark trails, and a whole bunch more. There was also a group in my region that organized more intense wilderness excursions - backpacking, kayak and canoe trips, etc, but they were expensive (understandably, as equipment rental is not cheap), and so I only went on a cycling trip with that group. It sucks that you had a shitty experience, but know that that's not always the case, and lots of leaders are really into outdoor activities.

[trombonekatie]

I actually quit the girl scouts in the second grade due to the competitive, mean-spirited nature of the girls in the troop I happened to be in. I didn't feel like they embodied what my idea of a girl scout should be (in my eight year old brain) and I had no desire to be around them. What's sad is that their behavior was parent condoned. If I was ever cruel in any way when I was a kid, you'd better believe my mom corrected that shitty behavior. What's even worse is that it is obvious to me that this is not behavior specific to the troop I was in.

This. I got kicked out of a Girl Scout troop when I was 8 or 9 for biting a little girl who was gossiping that my mom was bulimic. The girls in my troop were AWFUL, and their mothers were OKAY with that. The troop leader sold Kay beauty products and had us putting makeup on when we were around that age too. When I didn't want to (green face masks were ITCHY and lipstick was STICKY), 2 or 3 of the other girls started calling me "lezzie lezbo" and their moms did nothing. I was reprimanded for crying too much more often than not, actually. I was too tall, too poor, and too much like a boy for them. My mom used to get in these screaming matches over the phone with a couple of the other mothers. I'm not saying that it was particular cool of me to BITE that girl, and I don't blame them for kicking me out over violence... but those girls should have been disciplined a long time ago for torturing me and basically every other girl who didn't fit in with their mini-beauty-queen troop.

[monk]

- did you know there's only one right way to roll up a tent?

YES! and motherfuckers don't listen to me when i tell them they're doing it wrong and then the next time we take out the tent it's a pain in the ass and ihavetojustdoitmyself

/sorry off topic rant.

please continue

[Mathmo]

Slightly off topic: Scouting in the UK is now co-ed (no longer "Boy Scouts"). (Although Girl Guides, which started in 1909 when girls demanded something for them as boys had Boy Scouts, is still going and doesn't take boys).

[Epicenity]

lol trans or not, who joins the girls/boys scout anyway.
Must be an American thing.