When the Boy Scouts of America made the decision to allow girls to enter in 2017, one of the more surprising voices of dissent came not from old right wingers, but rather from the Girl Scouts of America themselves. They believed, rightfully so, that the BSA’s move would drain their membership and put their organization in jeopardy.
Now, the Girl Scouts are suing the BSA for using the word “scout” as gender neutral in their new program, citing trademark laws that the BSA does not have an exclusive right to the term “scout.” The girls-only nature of Girl Scouts provides a unique experience for young girls that is lost if the genders are integrated.
The BSA has long been the target of progressive crusades attempting to change the organization from the outside. For the most part, these changes have been positive.
The lifting of the ban on gay scouts in 2013, gay leaders in 2015 and transgender scouts in 2017 have all been phenomenal demonstrations of tolerance from an organization whose leadership comprises of almost exclusively old white men from Kansas.
The changes have been realized; what has not been is the fear-mongering rants of the old guard that gay or transgender scouts and leaders would all lead to the devolvement of the BSA into perverted debauchery.
Seeing this success, activists moved onto the next logical step: the final gender barrier. If girls were integrated into the BSA, the organization would no doubt find ways to make the integration successful as they have done with all the ones prior. There is no inherent problem with girls in the BSA. Unfortunately, progress sometimes brings forth unintended consequences.
That unintended consequence appears to harm the Girl Scouts, a large and significant girls-only organization with over one million active members. Since the gender flow can only move in one direction, the degradation of the Girl Scouts appears all but inevitable.
Activists should ask themselves why they are so focused on forcing the BSA to open to them. They should question why they are willing to risk the dissolution of one of the oldest women-led organizations in the nation. Meanwhile, parents of potential scouts of all genders are holding off lacing their kids in either organization, unsure what the rules are and what changes are coming next.
Perhaps the solution is not binary. Venture Scouting is an offshoot of the BSA, available for boys and girls ages 14-21. Venture crew members can retain their membership in both the crew itself and the organization they are a part of, be it the Boy Scouts or the Girl Scouts.
Venture crews participate in immersive outdoor experiences: rafting, ice climbing and week-long treks in the wilderness. Essentially, the participants do what those advocating for the integration of Boy Scouts want Girl Scouts do. Right now, however, venture crews are a shadow of their true potential.
An expansion of venture crews as well as lowering the age to the normal scouting requirement of 11, would bring about the best of both worlds. Girls would be able to experience and participate in activities that only the Boy Scouts would typically partake in, and both organizations would retain their existence and their respective numbers.
No doubt, many activists would scoff at this suggestion, stating it is not enough. Those people should take a step back and evaluate whether they are in this fight for the girls that would participate in these programs, or rather because they simply cannot stand the idea of boys having their own exclusive club.