LGBT

Best Persons in the World

Written by SK Ashby

For most people, returning a $100,000 donation would be unthinkable, but the Girl Scouts of Western Washington did exactly that this week.

The scout troop decided to return the donation after the donor instructed them to not use the money to support transgender girls.

"Please guarantee that our gift will not be used to support transgender girls. If you can't, please return the money."

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."

Without mincing words, you would have had to be a pretty miserable motherfucker to instruct a scout troop, or any other children's organization, to exclude certain children from their activities.

The level of arrogance required to make such a donation and then deliver instructions on how to use it, specifically asking that it not be used to support children because of their gender identity, is incomprehensible to me.

This could just as easily double as a "Worst Persons" post but we don't know who the donor was.

The Girl Scouts of Western Washington are today's best persons.

UPDATE: An Indiegogo campaign set up by the Girl Scouts of Western Washington has raised more than $103,000.