Saturday Jan 14 @ 01:32amStay Positive - The Hold Steady (SXSW Daytrotter Session)
When I was 14, I was excited to stay the night at a classmate’s birthday party. This sleepover was all the freshman girls were talking about at school for months and I got an invite because I let Julie look over my shoulder during social studies pop quizzes.
With my pillow and pajamas packed, I arrived at her door amped to enjoy my very first girls’ night out and show off my new Tamagotchi pet. We stuffed our faces with pizza and played rounds of Truth or Dare and Would You Rather and MASH (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House).
We were girls. Innocent, silly, obsessed with Rose and Jack, and slightly bitchy at our meanest. Then my friend’s mother called the birthday girl into the kitchen. As I was brushing my teeth and readying for bed with my gal pals, Julie tapped me on the shoulder.
“I’m sorry but my mom doesn’t get it,” she started. “She said only girls can sleepover.”
“I totally get it,” I said with my best smile because it wasn’t my party and I couldn’t cry if I wanted to.
It was my first reminder as a trans girl that just when I think I’m having fun being me, me isn’t always understood. I could be called out because of my genitals, made to feel less than because of our society’s limited perspective on gender and told to leave a friend’s party because of the separation we’ve built around gender identity, expression and its blurriness with sexual orientation. It was as if the mere presence of my tucked weewee under my Keroppi PJs was a danger to the other girls around me.
This is what I was reminded of when I saw 14-year-old Girl Scout “Taylor” urging a boycott of Girl Scouts Cookies on YouTube because the organization is inclusive of transgender girls. Taylor, who read from a script most likely created by passionate adults from HonestGirlScouts.com, claims safety as an issue, cites bathroom-use hysteria and discomfort in regards to sleepover arrangements. She confuses sexual orientation with gender identity throughout her video and goes as far as misgendering transgender girls as “transgender boys.”
I have never been so proud to have been a former girl scout.
I am so proud to say I completed 12 years of scouting
Wednesday Jan 11 @ 11:54pm
