OPINION

This Ain't Your Mamma's Girl Scouts

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The Girl Scouts (GSUSA) gather this week in Houston (November 8-13) to celebrate its 100th Anniversary, with a convention theme of “ Renewing the Promise: Girl Scouts in a New Century.”

The Girl Scouts’ promise to its 3.2 million members includes, among other things, the commitment to help girls “develop values to guide their actions and provide the foundation for sound decision-making.”

A quick look at the speaker lineup for its upcoming convention makes clear that the Girl Scouts are promoting not the traditional values of the original Girl Scouts, but the radical, raunchy values and relativistic decision-making of the trendy left-wing Girl Scouts.

The real theme might be described more aptly as “Reneging on the Promise: Girl Scouts Turn Left in the New Century.”

The women showcased at this year’s convention—held up as models of leadership and inspiration--reveal an agenda-driven organization. Speakers include:

Swanee Hunt, a powerful Democratic fundraiser and philanthropist with a mission to achieve “gender parity.” She has directed huge sums to homosexual and pro-abortion causes.

Annise Parker, Mayor of Houston, is a pro-abortion lesbian who presided over the opening of Houston’s new Planned Parenthood abortion center.

Marlee Matlin, an actress and LGBT supporter, is known for her portrayal of a deaf lesbian on Showtime’s “The L Word.”

Monique Coleman, singer and actress (star of Disney’s popular High School Musical films), promotes pro-abortion organizations like South Africa’s Love Life--a program aimed to teach adolescents how to assert their sexual and reproductive rights.

Parents who are trying to instill timeless values and strong morals in their daughters would never want them to idolize Monique Chapman and her trash talk. Or to find inspiration in a Girl Scout “Woman of Distinction” like Ann Shoket, Editor of Seventeen Magazine—a publication that encourages teen sex as an “amazing experience.” But, most parents don’t know the true agenda of today’s Girl Scouts.

The Girls Scouts’ agenda is most obvious on a national level, but state organizations are complicit as well. Take the Colorado state organization, for example. They recently issued a statement, in response to a parent’s objection that her cross-dressing seven-year-old boy was refused membership in the local Girl Scouts chapter, that parrots typical LGBT propaganda. The Colorado Girl Scouts reversed its local leader’s refusal to admit the boy and instead announced that it welcomes any boy who ‘self-identifies,’ as the phrase goes, as a girl. This oh-so-progressive transgender-supportive policy says that, “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.”

In contrast to the Boy Scouts of America —an organization I have long supported and recommended—the Girl Scouts USA has been co-opted as the functional arm of the Democrat, feminist establishment. And they dupe millions of American families into believing that their only mission is to promote wholesome leadership activities for girls.

How to Save Your Family: Tell the Truth About the Girl Scouts

In its 2011 Convention blitz, the Girl Scouts called upon its Alumnae to support the Girl Scouts’ work, reminding its former members that they “belong to one of the most powerful all-women networks in the country.” True enough.

If you are a former Girl Scout, and want the Scouts to return to a wholesome emphasis on character, leadership, and service in the context of traditional morality, then make your voice heard. Email or phone them to protest the promotion of pro-abortion and LGBT advocates and to ask them to stop trampling over the religious and moral concerns of their own members.

Visit SpeakingNowGirlScouts.com, a simple website with powerful information about the Girl Scouts’ leftward tilt. Founded by two longtime Girl Scouts who left the organization because of its increasing connections to pro-abortion advocacy, SpeakNow keeps Girl Scouts—and their parents—informed about the organization’s disturbing direction.

In troops all over the country, the Girl Scouts gather young girls who want nothing other than to form fast friendships, find encouragement, and serve others. And it’s a crying shame that, on the eve of their 100th Anniversary, the Girl Scouts have broken their promise to the girls they once sought to serve.