Why do the GOP Culture Warriors Hate the Girl Scouts?
Those idyllic times are long gone. Girls no longer set off on their own to unload cookies; watchful parents hover as the girls make their sales from portable tables set up at the grocery store or the bank. It’s a sad reminder of the evil lurking in our world.
Nor have the Girl Scouts escaped the culture wars. Aggrieved conservatives have accused the group of pushing an ultra-left agenda, somehow - and I admit I don’t completely follow the logic of this - promoting lesbianism and Planned Parenthood at the same time. And what evidence substantiates the charge about a gay-Girl Scout alliance? Here’s one item cited: Mayor Annise Parker’s address to the national convention when it met in Houston in November. In some suspicious minds, a mayor’s welcome to visitors to her city carries a scary subtext.
‘Black Helicopter’ stuff
Meanwhile, the accusation about a Girl Scouts/Planned Parenthood cabal stems from the scouts’ sex education component. Rather than crediting both organizations for preventing unwanted pregnancies, the conspiracy theorists want to tarnish the Girl Scouts with grievances they have with Planned Parenthood.
This is Black Helicopter stuff. Someone had to look long and hard to find a reason to vilify an organization whose chief reason for existence is to help its 2.3 million members become “girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place” in a setting usually overseen by their mothers.
In its 100 years of existence, the Girl Scouts have produced such leaders and luminaries as diverse as Laura Bush and Hilary Clinton, Dorthy Hamill and Venus Williams, Lucille Ball and Gloria Steinem. Why?