Taking the Girl Out of Girl Scouts

Don McClarey’s recent post about the Boy Scouts reminded me of something I wrote about the Girl Scouts and a policy they introduced in 2015. Seems appropriate to share it again on The American Catholic…

There are several ways in which we can understand ourselves to be made in the image & likeness of God. For example, God has a will and an intellect as do we; God is spirit and our souls are spirit. Another way relates to human gender and sexuality. Theology of the body explains how we can speak of the Trinity in terms of love and persons. From the eternal love between the Father and the Son proceeds a third person, called the Holy Spirit. In a similar way, the love between a husband and wife helps to create a third person, called a baby.

In Catholicism male and female matter and sexuality is not only physical, like it is for animals, and it’s not only spiritual, as if we were angels or “mini-gods”. It’s both. In secularism, however, sexuality is spoken of in both physical terms and psychological terms, but seems to be treated as only physical or only psychological when it is convenient to the situation.

“It’s just sex” appeals to the idea that sex is for adult entertainment and it’s about physical pleasure. In this view the physical nature that brings the pleasure is what matters. Any psychological concerns that arise from extensive and varying forms of fornicating are merely the result of religious oppression, or other societal guilt. Unjust and unneeded remorse is forced onto individuals which keeps them from enjoying what comes naturally.

On the other hand, if a boy believes himself to be a girl or vice versa, the physical evidence of the body as male or female has no meaning. All that matters is the psychological concern.

The psychological only view found its way into the Girl Scouts of America (GSA) back in 2015. A GSA policy extends membership to boys who identify as girls. The group says on its website, “If the child is recognized by the family and school/community as a girl and lives culturally as a girl, then Girl Scouts is an organization that can serve her in a setting that is both emotionally and physically safe.”

This basically means that girls and women already in the organization will be forced to recognize and accept transgender-ism as “normal”. Boys from kindergarten through high school can join the Girl Scouts if the boy considers himself to be a girl and “others” agree. It would not matter what the other girls in the troop or their parents think because the boy will essentially call the shots. If the boy believes himself to be a girl and the family and school/community agrees (whoever they are), it’s decided for everyone else. Physical evidence of being a boy means nothing.

I’m no expert on gender confusion, but I can’t imagine a situation where the “school/community” leads a boy to think he might be a girl. Rather, it is more likely that the boy does or says things that would relate more to being a girl and the adults in the boy’s life think to themselves “let’s go with his lead” and then look for support in the community.

In other words, the child, whose cognitive reasoning is not yet developed, leads the way. And we should all ask ourselves…”In what other society in human history have children ever been allowed to lead the way?”