In a recent video posting that has sparked a wave of controversy, a California Girl Scout known as Taylor has asked that Girl Scout cookies be boycotted both by consumers and the girl scouts themselves. She believes that the Girl Scouts of the United States of America (GSUSA) is “not being honest with us girls, its troupes, its leaders, its parents, or the American public” in allowing transgender girls from kindergarten through to twelfth grade into the Girl Scouts.¹ In particular, the incident that prompted this video was a nine year old transgender girl being allowed into the Girl Scouts after initially being denied. Unfortunately, regardless of whether her a reader agrees with her beliefs, a variety of logical contradictions and some poorly chosen sources undermine her persuasiveness.

First is a very inconsistent approach to defining what exactly it means to be a girl. Taylor gives no definition herself, and the only statement resembling a qualification comes from the CO Girl Scouts VP for Communication Rachael Trujillo, reading “If a child identifies as a girl, and the child’s family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout.” However, Taylor’s speech then constantly references how the Girl Scouts are betraying everyone’s trust by letting transgender girls in, and that they are breaking their own code to do so. And yet, using the only definition given in the speech, none of those things are true. The Girl Scout’s definition of girl includes transgender girls, so they are not breaking their code or betraying anyone’s trust. She attempts to support her arguments with the GSUSA funded study “10 Emerging Truths: New Directions for Girls 11-17,” but it is unclear what definition of girl this study is using, with the logical assumption being once again the definition given by Ms. Trujillo.² Thus, her quoting of the 4^th truth in that study fails to carry any weight. The safety regulations she claimed carried a contradiction until they were amended also do nothing of the sort under Ms. Trujillo’s definition of a girl.

Another major problem is the misuse and in many cases absence of support. Throughout the speech, she cites only the 10 Emerging Truths study, but only quotes one small part. She ignores the third truth entirely, which states that girls need a safe place, yet doesn’t say anything about gender being important to that safe place. She also neglects to mention the core 4 values that those surveyed in the 10 Emerging Truths study came up with: Become, Belong, Believe, and Build. The second of that list seems to directly contradict with her stance that transgender girls do not belong in Girl Scouts, and should at least have been addressed somehow. Further, she makes constant references that boys being a danger, but never specifies how.³ As this provides the cornerstone of her argument, the lack of any support is deeply felt — an average reader, especially one who didn’t already agree with her, might assume that the central reason for her position is an emotional response fueled by misinformation or bigotry. This belief isn’t exactly challenged by her last piece of support, the website HonestGirlScouts.com

While Taylor’s speech has its faults, they pale in comparison to those of her last source, HonestGirlScouts.com. If after Taylor’s speech an undecided listener followed her recommendation and visited the website, it is likely they would be immediately turned off by the extreme and hypocritical stances the site takes.  Boldly emblazoned with the quote “..to be Honest and Fair …and to be a sister to every Girl Scout,” the site then proceeds to directly contradict that quote in every article and link they have. They rage against the GSUSA for promoting a political agenda to impressionable girl scouts, all while promoting their own political agenda to the same impressionable girl scouts. They used the term “inclusion” as a negative, because the Girl Scouts include groups they don’t like, such as transgender girls. They absolutely refuse to make any compromises on giving out any sort of information regarding sexual education, which contradicts the 10 Emerging Truths study, which suggests that girls 11 to 17 want to be able to discuss such topics in their troupes. Most relevantly, they incorrectly define and trivialize the idea of being transgender, therefore casting suspicion that Taylor also views the issue in that light.

Finally, ignoring the actual content, the presentation of her points isn’t well worded or structured. Her speech is very stilted, and she displays little emotion throughout the video, which is especially damning due to her argument being based on an appeal to pathos. The transcript also reveals several very unwieldy sentences, such as the following: “So if a man is not allowed to share a tent with girls, what would you call a twelfth grade boy who turns eighteen years old?” The first clause of that sentence only tangentially relates to the second, and there are many more awkward phrases peppered throughout her speech. Individually, each of these points is minor at best, but combined they serve to greatly weaken her position.

In conclusion, Taylor’s rhetoric fails on several levels. She never conclusively defines what a girl is, and in fact provides evidence to a definition that is contrary to many of her points. She does not support her points very well in the speech, and the website she suggests to learn more will immediately turn off all but the most dedicated to her message – the kind of people she didn’t need to convince in the first place. Finally, the actual presentation of the speech is lacking, with many awkward sentences and pauses, and far too little emotion to make any emotional appeal possible.

Footnotes

1. From what I could ascertain, calling those who identify as female yet lack the normal sexual organs “transgender boys” is offensive. Thus, for the purposes of this article, the term “transgender girls” will be used instead.
2. 10 Emerging Truths is found here:  http://www.girlscouts.org/research/pdf/ten_truths.pdf
3. To avoid repletion, assume from this point on that every sentence with “boys” in it has an unspoken addendum that transgender girls do not identify as such.

A personal note: That paragraph on HonestGirlScouts.com was actually toned down several times. I tried to justify its inclusion the best I could, but the real reason was I couldn’t stand to not bring it up after reading through it.