The Girl Scouts of America is featuring their LGBTQ+ patch during “pride” month, encouraging girl scouts to attend a pride parade, create a rainbow-themed flag, and read several LGBTQ+ books, according to The Christian Post. Requiring at least three LGBTQ+ activities to participate in to earn the patch, Girl Scouts from the young level of Daisy all the way up to Cadette must immerse themselves in the “pride” movement in order to meet requirements.
Before beginning their LGBTQ+ journey, girl scouts are encouraged to become familiar with the vocabulary. This includes words like gender with the subcategories of gender binary which is defined as being an “oppressive” social construct, gender identity, gender expression, and preferred gender pronouns (PGPs); sexual orientation which includes “asexual,” “bisexual,” “gay,” “lesbian,” “pansexual,” “queer,” and “straight”; coming out; oppression; and reclaimed words including “queer,” “dyke,” “tranny,” and “faggot” which have a reclaimed sense of pride.
This vocabulary lesson will help girl scouts navigate the myriad of LGBTQ+ books that include explicit imagery and details about sex, sexual identities, sexual relationships, and the human body. Some of the books recommended by the organization include I Am Jazz, Love Makes a Family, and Stonewall: A Building, an Uprising, a Revolution. Recommended documentaries include The Out List, We’re Here, and Stonewall Uprising.
The Christian Post reports “according to the Girl Scouts’ website, the purpose of allowing troop members to earn the LGBT-themed patch is to ‘celebrate’ the diversity of LGBT individuals and acknowledge the community’s contributions to the nation. The website also noted that ‘girls of all identities’ are encouraged to participate.”
This is not the first time the Girl Scouts have entered the LGBTQ+ cultural arena. The organization received backlash after allowing biological males who identified as females to join the Girl Scouts. Despite the petition started by the American Family Association to urge the Girl Scouts to change their policy, the 35,000 signatures failed to make an impact and the Girl Scouts of America are moving forward in the “woke” direction.