By John Mack Freeman
The Girl Scouts of Western Washington received a $100,000 grant last week that would have enabled 500 girls to attend camp and would have greatly helped the mission of the organization. However, the donation came with stipulations: it could only be used on non-trans Girl Scouts. The Girl Scouts have accepted trans members for several years now, so the Girl Scouts of Western Washington refused the gift. Via Advocate.com:
Council CEO Megan Ferland told the newspaper her decision wasn’t hard after that, though she was “very sad” to see discrimination possibly deny her troop resources. She wrote a note back to the donor, who she was careful not to name, saying she would not be accepting their money.
“Girl Scouts is for every girl,” she said of her decision. “And every girl should have the opportunity to be a Girl Scout if she wants to.”
Luckily, the wider Internet community proved that acceptance speaks louder than discrimination. An Indiegogo account set up to replace the donation has raised over $323,000 as of this writing in only six days. If you would like to see their progress or contribute to the campaign, you can visit the site here.
