We have a Hero Award this week, the Hero Award being given as the occasion arises to someone or, as here, some group that just does the right thing on a matter big or small.Even as the Boy Scouts of America continues to struggle, fuss, and fume, trying to come up with policies that are sufficiently non-discriminatory to get it out from under criticism without having to actually be, you know, non-discriminatory, the Girl Scouts of America is making a change.
In May, the GSA said it would accept transgender children. Specifically, "if the child is recognized by the family and school/community as a girl and lives culturally as a girl," then the Girl Scouts will regard her as a girl. Which seems so simple, you'd wonder why it would ever be a problem.
Which would be enough, but there's more.
Around that time, an unnamed donor sent $100,000 to the Girl Scouts of Western Washington with a note wanting the chapter to "guarantee that our gift will not be used to support transgender girls. If you can't, please return the money."Even though the amount involved was a quarter of their entire annual fundraising goal, the chapter did precisely that, with Council CEO Megan Ferland including a note saying "Girl Scouts is for every girl."
Now, that is a hero.
As a footnote, the chapter set up an Indiegogo fundraising page to try to replace the $100,000. In little more than a day, they had raised over $216,000 from over 4,000 donations. Fitting reward for a hero.
Sources cited in links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scouts_of_America_membership_controversies
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/19/1385958/-The-Girl-Scouts-of-America-announce-they-will-accept-transgender-kids
http://www.themarysue.com/girl-scouts-indiegogo/
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