Facebook video:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=949694245161451

(I don't have a Facebook account, but I am able to watch the video)

I don't know how this works, but isn't there a Girl Scouts of America? I know here in Canada we also have an equivalent "Girl Guides of Canada", I occasionally see them selling cookies.

I've never joined the Canadian version of Scouts.

If she is able to join the Boy Scouts, does that mean a boy can join the Girl Scouts?

Or wouldn't be easier to start a scouts club that has both girls and boys? Than to change an existing club?

And did I read the video correctly? She has support from National Organization for Women, but they are asking the Federal Government to defund Boy Scouts of America until they end discriminatory policies. But she says Boy Scouts of America is a "great organization", but would be better to include girls.

I'm confused and I don't get it.

 

There is a Girl Scouts of America and while I'm not sure if they are still around I believe there is one or two groups of scouts that welcome both genders. I think they're called Spiral Scouts or Adventure Scouts or something.

 

If she can join the boy scouts, can I join the girl scouts? I think I'd like pretty handsome in one of those snazzy little outfits.

 

Welcome | SpiralScouts International

Adventure Scouts USA - Adventure Has a New Name. Yours. Welcome, fellow Adventurers!

 

I'm really not looking forward to the probable shit-storm this thread will likely produce.

So, a   may be coming. In the meantime, please play nice...

 

I made it all the way to Juniors before I quit the Girl Scouts, had a lot of fun. We didn't do camping or anything, but I think that kinda thing depends on parent/scout leader funding and how much your troop can raise for a trip, Not really sure how that works.

 

Ok, I only had daughters and two were in Brownies and never stayed in long enough to become Girl Scouts. I was only in Cub Scouts and never stayed in long enough to be in Boy scouts. My question is this, are there really that many differences between the two?

 

The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have long since merged into one organization of Scouts in most countries. This type of controversy comes up because we still insist on keeping our verstion (mostly) segregated.

It would also be less of an issue if the BSA and GSA weren't vastly different programs. There's some overlap in what they do, but Boy Scouts is far more focused on achievement, camping, etc. while the Girl Scouts are typically more focused on arts and crafts and social activities. GSA doesn't have a rank that carries the same distinction as Eagle Scout does in the BSA. Most people I've talked to who are familiar with both groups find the BSA's offerings vastly superior. If we don't want girls trying to get into the boys' group, then we need real parity between them.

Meanwhile, it is technically already possible for girls to join the BSA as part of the advanced/specialist "Venture" program. However, girls do not have access to the main BSA Scouting program and cannot become Eagle Scouts, etc.

If you're young enough to join, yes. The GSA is more progressive than the BSA and boys have been allowed to join before.

 

Ahhh....cool.

As a non-American and non-educated regarding Scouts' organizations, thanks for clearing it up.

One would think in this day and age, the GSA would include more things that BSA offers, like a school that offers the same subjects regardless of gender.

Makes me wonder if my parents made a mistake in not forcing me to join the Canadian version. All I remember was attending a 2-week camp. It wasn't co-ed, except for meals, but there were a few days where activities where both boys and girls had to team up in some sort of Olympic-styled games. Otherwise, we had our activities, and the girls had theirs. Note, I was 7 at the time.

 

@flamepanther Like I said I think it depends on the individual troop and how much money and effort they're willing to put into it. Besides crafts, cooking, cookie selling and helping out Brownies and Daisies, we did go to the beach, went on nature walks, did bird watching, pollution clean ups and set up a booth at the Earth Day Fair.

I think the real problem might be that some people automatically expect their kids to get free fun activities and trips out of the Scouts and balk when they hafta help pay. There's probably Boy Scout troops that didn't get to do the fun stuff associated with it, just as there are Girl Scouts who did go camping, horseback riding and canoing.

 

Good to know.  

 

Does the video explain why she's not trying to make adjustments to the GSA, so that it offers similar achievements?

 

I was in three different Boy Scout troops, and although the style, quality, competence, effort, and budget that went into managing the troops were sometimes vastly different, the gamut of activities was consistent. The laziest, worst-funded, worst managed BSA troops I've come across still did camping, community service, and similar activity outings on a frequent regular basis. Unless I was sick or on a family trip, I went camping once every month. That's in addition to running charity fundraisers, cleaning and renovating public property, and so on. The BSA program does not make it easy to avoid any of this (and I know at least one of my troops would rather have, if they could).

Anyway, it wasn't my intention to denigrate the GSA. My point was that we'll have kids trying to join the "wrong" one as long as the programs continue to be appreciably different in any significant way (besides gender).

I haven't watched the video (I'm at work). This is far from a new issue though. Girls have been trying to join the Boy Scouts for decades. But for the sake of argument, which do you suppose is easier (i.e. requires the least work and funding from the fewest other people)? Restructuring an entire organization to your liking, or getting one you already like to let you in?

 

I was in Boy Scouts, with the monthly camping, hiking, tents (god, the tents...), merit badges, totin' chip, the works. My sister was in Girl Scouts, where camping meant going to a finished cabin with electricity and plumbing, where setting up a tent and sleeping outside was crazy talk. I could totally see a girl in a similar situation wanting to do REAL camping/scouting and concluding that joining the boys was the easiest way to do so.

 

@Noideaforaname Lol having been to summer camp and on several weekend camping trips as a kid, two with no showers and only port a potties, not to mention enough mosquito bites to play connect the dots with, I'll take that cabin!  

 

Over/under on how long this thread stays open? I give it till sometime tonight.

 

I'm a 32 year old man, but I identify as a 8 year old girl. What? Don't judge me!

Just kidding. I think if the girl wants to join the BSA, she should.

 

Exactly this.

 

Made it to Eagle Scout myself, it was practically a 2nd school. My father never made it that far but his kids were going to. Weather we wanted to or not.
I can see the appeal for a girl who didn't get to do some of those things, but I wouldn't recommend it as some of these kids are scouts up to young teens.
In my troop we had one patrol turn a coat hanger into a branding iron....stuck it in a fire...then branded a log, some chair,...and one of the kids in our troop.... Then they went swimming in our water supply a military water buffalo (rumor has it they may have done more than just swim)
ttp://www.vintagemilitarytrucks.com/1978_Water_Buffalo_Lufkin_320_Trailer_Vin_28043_a.JPG
So the many of the campers started drinking the coffee instead. Imagine a bunch of kids high on too much coffee.
Then they started throwing fireworks into the campfire...this was back when a m80 could still take out a mailbox.
That was all one camping trip on the same day.

In another trip they let a group of bulls out and proceeded to run from them into our camping area where most of us were sleeping. The Bulls ran over many sleeping campers

In another one of their patrol either fell, or rumor has it was pushed off a water fall.

I could go on and on.

....god knows what they would do if there were girls there.

I wouldn't recommend having girls in some troops without some good adult supervision and separate camping areas.

I know I did my best to avoid that Patrol.

The boy scouts is a private organization, so they can't be forced to add girls if they don't want to. This issue has come up before.

 

The BSA have long been under fire for their conservative beliefs on who can be involved. And while they may be private, they also receive public funding from the federal government making their practices even more questionable. I won't go much more into it, but Penn and Teller covered it is great details on there BullS**t series from a few years ago.

This is also unlike most other scouting organizations across the world who have decided to live in the current century.