At long last, the time has come. It’s Girl Scout Cookie season. This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the annual cookie sale, and to celebrate, the scouts are unveiling a new flavor—Savannah Smiles—a powdered lemon-wedge cookie. The new flavor will be joining the seasoned veteran force of Tagalongs, Do-si-dos, Samoas, Thin Mints, and more in an effort to sate the cookie needs of the American public.
With all changes come controversy, however. This year’s debate comes not over the inclusion of the new cookie flavor, but over the inclusion of a new type of girl scout. This past fall, a Colorado troop decided to allow a 7-year-old transgender child to enter its ranks. After the decision to admit the child, the Girl Scouts of Colorado released a statement through the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD): “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.”
The new flavor.
The decision has been widely celebrated by LGBQT groups as a progressive step for the world famous organization, but some members within the organization itself have been less than enthusiastic about the Girl Scouts’ policy of inclusiveness. One teenager from California is leading a boycott of Girl Scout Cookies this year as a symbol of protest against the new policy: “Right now, the Girl Scouts of the USA…is not being honest with us girls, its troops, its leaders, its parents, or the American public,” claims the teenager, who is identified only as Taylor.
It is yet to be seen if the boycott will affect sales. Will the inclusion of a new type of Girl Scout offset the inclusion of a new flavor? It seems unlikely—some of life’s temptations are just too good to pass up.
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