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 of the Religious Right Fundamentalist Groups See Rampant Feminism/Lesbianism Advice in GayToday: 'Buy Lots of Girl Scout Cookie Boxes!' |
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By Bill Berkowitz
I confess. I've never been a Girl Scout. I was a Boy Scout for a while, even
had a subscription to Boys Life magazine, and I read it cover-to-cover. But
that's another story altogether.
Despite never having worn the Girl Scout uniform or sold its cookies door-to-door, I'm becoming quite a fan of these young girls and their leaders. And, I'm getting sick and tired of them being bashed and trashed by the constabulary of the Religious Right. Haven't they done enough for the Boy Scouts already? There are many reasons the Girl Scouts are in the cross hairs of the right. On the one hand, it revolves around two words -- the F-word and the L-word. F stands for feminist - the women who, according to its right-wing critics, run the show at Girl Scout headquarters. From the F-word, it's a short hop, skip and a jump to the letter L, that stands for Lesbian, which, of course, either most Girl Scout leaders are or at highly sympathetic towards. But the crux of the right wing's criticism appears to stem from the fact that the Girl Scouts just aren't the Boy Scouts (thank goodness for small miracles). And, because of that crucial little fact of life, they aren't able to provide the similar caliber of moral and cultural leadership that the Boy Scouts has given us lo these many years. It is this moral leadership that went to the Extreme Court and argued in favor of discrimination against gay scout leaders - and won. To top it off, many conservative leaders believe that the Boy Scout oath, particularly the phrase about being "morally straight" is the best thing to come along since vitamin-fortified white bread. "Morally straight" ensures that the Boy Scouts won't be tainted by immoral, crooked homosexuals. As a time-honored right-wing tactic, often seemingly ridiculous charges, in this case against the Girl Scouts, are repeated frequently enough that they begin to resonate. Then the charges must be answered. In the end the Girl Scouts wind up a great deal of time and energy responding to phony accusations. Momma, don't let your babies grow up to be girl scouts Rev. Donald Wildmon's American Family Association is hot on the trail of the Girl Scouts. The April 2001 AFA Journal, the organization's flagship publication, scolded Connie Matsui, the president of the Girls Scouts, for speaking positively about Women's Educational Media's video "That's A Family!" It is described by the Journal as "an instructional video for children which equates same-sex relationships with marriage and claims that same-sex couples with children are families." The film, which promotes tolerance and examines the diverse nature of "family" life in twenty-first century America, is anathema to the AFA. TheAFA Journal: "Concerned parents are getting mixed signals from the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) about whether that organization will be promoting to its girls a controversial new video which endorses same-sex relationships." (Rev. Wildmon has a particularly prickly burr on his saddle when it comes to Women's Educational Media, the San Francisco-based award winning filmmakers. Wildmon squared off against WEM over its previous film, It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School, and tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to pressure public television stations around the country into not running the video not long ago.) For conservatives, evidence of the transgressions by the leaders of the Girl Scouts is piling up faster than sweaty handkerchiefs at an old-fashioned tent revival.
In February, Fred Jackson and Robin Burchfield repeated earlier charges that the Girl Scouts were moving headlong toward "political correctness." Kathryn Lopez, writing in the National Review in October 2000, said the organization was on the slippery slope to "political correctness." Where's the beef? Lopez quotes from James Davison Hunter's book The Death of Character, which said the Girl Scouts "dropped 'loyalty' from their oath in 1972, in favor of 'I will do my best to be honest and fair.' In 1975, a Catholic archdiocese cut off all support of the Girl Scouts because of their sex-ed program. In 1993, the Girl Scouts made 'God' optional in the Girl Scout Promise: 'On my honor, I will try: To serve God and my country, to help people at all times and to live by the Girl Scout Law.'" One of the issues that especially angers Lopez is the Scouts' support for Title IX - legislation-mandating equal spending for women's athletic programs when government funding is involved. Since its passage, Title IX has had an incredibly positive effect on women, providing them with opportunities that were previously completely un-available. Lopez, an associate editor with National Review, rails against the Girl Scouts' leftward tilt. She sees the lesbian camp issue as "a radicalized version" of something she has seen before -"a tendency from the Girl Scouts to be liberal feminists and to bring issues of sex and sexual orientation into the Girl Scouts rather prominently." Lopez told Family News in Focus that her research found that the Girl Scouts national leadership "endorses leftist social activism, promiscuity, and the homosexual agenda." Lopez claims that the girls are being harmed by their "indoctrination" into "the liberal culture of victimization." She's repeated those charges during a late-July appearance on the FOX News Channel. There you have it. Girls Scouts promise to do their best, but their "best" is not good enough for its critics. Buy a box of cookies. Buy a bunch of boxes. Support your local Girl Scouts. The "best" it yet to come. Bill Berkowitz is an Oakland-based free lance writer covering the Religious Right and related conservative movements. |
