Sultan: Girl Scouts threaten legal action over troop's fundraiser for children in Gaza

stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to News@lemmy.world – 198 points – Sultan: Girl Scouts threaten legal action over troop's fundraiser for children in Gaza
stltoday.com

The Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri sent an email and said members could not raise money that represents “partisan politics” and must “stay neutral.”

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The oppressor determines which things are and are not "political." The ideology and politics of the oppressor is always viewed as "neutral," while the oppressed, pointing out their oppression, are "being political."

The oppressor maintains power by controlling language and expression, by denying the oppressed even the right to talk about their own oppression as it is "impolite." In the rare cases the oppressed is allowed to talk, the oppressor demands inclusion in the conversation to "make sure both sides are heard." The two sides being that of the oppressed asking for their oppression to stop, and the oppressor justifying the continuation of said oppression while criticizing the oppressed for "not being willing to compromise" on "some oppression" or "some genocide" but the oppressed making the "unreasonable" demand of "no oppression" or "no genocide."

I have to admit, my gut reaction was to ponder if this rule would be enforced if it was to raise money for Israeli children instead… but I know diddly squat about Girl Scouts and did about 5 minutes of research.

What I learned was that money raised by Girl Scouts is intended to be spent on local community projects. So helping local kids would be cool, but not foreign. Girl Scouts doesn’t forbid one from aiding foreign needy, but you can’t do that under the Girl Scout banner/as a Girl Scout project.

So, at the moment, I’m inclined to side with Girl Scouts on this issue. But, again, I don’t know squat about how Girl Scouts is run in practice, and if this project is being singled out or not.

I was troop leader for GSUSA, and you called it. The organization is very protective of its image, in order to be open to kids from ALL cultures. The rules regarding political activities under the Girl Scouts banner are clearly stated, and if there are any questions or requests for an exception, the staff is always willing to help.

This troop could have simply cleared the plan in advance, or participated in political, humanitarian fundraisers without involving the organization. The fact that the leader decided to break the rules, take offense, disband, and publicly infer that the Girl Scouts values are questionable says a lot about who has what agenda.

I appreciate this level-headed take from someone knowledgeable on the topic. It's very easy to get riled up over the issue in Gaza, and it's important to discern where certain actions are sanctioned or not.

That said, I suspect there were better ways to deescalate the issue on Girl Scouts' end. Threatening litigation over a contentious humanitarian issue is begging for bad publicity. But, I'm not privy to the exchanges that brought it to that level.

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My daughter is a girl scout and as far as I'm aware they can choose to spend money raised on activities for their own troop or any cause / non profit that they wish. I think the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri may be mistaken here.

Unrelated topic, the Girl Scouts allows trans girls to participate. I wonder if they have the same stance or if this local branch is going against the international standard.

Supporting Israel's victims is drastically more disruptive to establishment power than supporting trans children.

Consequently, It's more likely for an organization to prevent its members from supporting Gazans than it is for an organization to prevent its members from supporting trans rights

Gonna put my sister in Boy Scouts cause they allow girls in there since a few years ago now. I wonder if they have any restrictions on foreign aid like this.

Afaik, the US is the only country still calling it "boy" scouts.

Everywhere else that I'm aware of, it's just Scouts. And it has been co-ed for at least a couple of decades outside of the US.

Girl scouts may be wrong here, but they're still by far a better organization than the boy scouts.

There's something to be said for the skills that are taught and the overall purported ethos, but like the Catholic church, you absolutely cannot trust them to not cover up heinous shit that they'll allow to continue forever.

If you do, make sure you're present all the time and be aware that predators have found a home there since their inception.

Boy scout troops vary from place to place. I've been with my troop for many years and we're great. The next city over, I know a troop that runs things very differently and left. So ymmv

partisan politics

Huh. Which US political party represents not doing genocides? Kinda seems like both of them are on board with the genocide thing so I don't see how this is partisan.

“Unfortunately, if this direct violation of the organization’s governing documents and policies continues, Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri and Girl Scouts of the United States have no other choice than to engage our legal counsel to help remedy this situation and to protect the intellectual property and other rights of the organization.”

Politics is violence.

Damn it Mom, I'm never going to earn this genocide badge If we keep doing these protests.

I don’t eat GS cookies because of the ingredient list, but I’ve always donated money. Now I’m tempted to keep my money due to this heavy handed reaction.