One scout hoping to fund a troop trip to Alaska—and assemble backpacks for foster children—has sold 2,500 boxes of cookies, bringing those plane tickets within reach. Another scout, a competitive soccer player, was raising money so her troop could attend scouting camp without worrying about the cost; she has now sold 4,500 boxes, ensuring that trip is covered. One troop made up of transgender Girl Scouts set their sights on learning horseback riding and attending summer camp together—and sold 22,000 boxes to make it happen. And Pim, who simply wanted to go to Niagara Falls and to take her troop camping, has sold more cookies than the website can even track: more than 100,000 boxes.

And while we can’t know exactly how many of those sales came directly from our yearly list, we do know that these trans Girl Scouts have taken the internet by storm. Posts about them have racked up millions of impressions on Facebook and gone repeatedly viral on Bluesky. In the process, countless people looking for their next box of cookies discovered a cause worth supporting—and a group of scouts they were excited to cheer on.

The news about their staggering success comes during a broader regression around scouting organizations with respect to transgender people. In December, the United Kingdom’s Girlguiding—the British equivalent of the Girl Scouts—banned transgender girls from joining, reversing a policy that had been in place since 2018. In the United States, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth forced Scouting America to agree to classify members by sex assigned at birth, eliminate diversity initiatives, and effectively out and segregate transgender scouts from their peers. Girl Scouts of the USA, however, has yet to see the same regression—the organization still stands by its transgender inclusion policy.

For these kids, that transgender inclusion policy has given them hope. At a time when thousands of anti-LGBTQ+ bills are being proposed and passed across the country, the cookie list is proof that people out there care. When every force in the world is acting against them, for once, their identity is not treated as a curse by society, but a blessing. Parents have told me that their children have been overwhelmed with joy watching the numbers climb, realizing that strangers across the country support them. And that’s worth protecting.

You can purchase Girl Scout cookies from a trans Girl Scout here.

“The situation is really chaotic, desperate,” said Florencia Guimares García, a travesti activist who is president of the House of Lohana and Diana Civil Association. “There is also a lot of fear among the trans and travestí community towards the government’s policies.”

Guimares’s group is named after Diana Sacayán, a prominent trans activist who was stabbed to death inside her Buenos Aires apartment in 2015, and Lohana Berkins, the founder of the Association for the Fight for Travesti and Transsexual Identity who died in 2016.

Guimares and three other trans activists — Julia Amore, Sasha Solano, and Daniela Ruíz — spoke with the Blade after they participated in a trans and travestí rights forum that took place at an LGBTQ cultural center in downtown Buenos Aires. Alba Rueda, the country’s former special envoy for LGBTQ rights, also took part.

“We are in a bad moment for the rights and quality of life of LGBTQ+ people,” Rueda told the Blade during a February 2024 interview.

Milei took office on Dec. 10, 2023, after he defeated then-Economy Minister Sergio Massa in the second round of that year’s presidential election. Rueda resigned before Milei assumed the presidency.

Milei, an economist and former congressman, shortly after he took office eliminated the country’s Women, Gender and Diversity Ministry.

Milei last year closed the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism, a government agency known by the acronym INADI that provided support and resources to people who suffered discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and other factors. Milei in 2024 also dismissed trans people who the government hired under the Trans Labor Quota Law, which set aside at least 1 percent of public sector jobs for trans people.

Argentina’s landmark Gender Identity Law that, among other things, allows trans people to legally change their gender without medical intervention, took effect in 2012 when Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was president. Milei on Feb. 5 issued a decree that restricts minors’ access to gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatments.

Gay Congressman Esteban Paulón, a long-time LGBTQ activist, filed a criminal complaint against Milei after he linked the LGBTQ community to pedophilia and made other homophobic and transphobic comments during a Jan. 23 speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Millions of people in Buenos Aires and across Argentina participated in marches against Milei that took place less than two weeks later.

Milei is among the heads of state who attended President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Milei also spoke at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md.

“Violence is more explicit, more common,” Guimares told the Blade, noting police violence has become more common against sex workers who are trans or travestí since Milei took office. Guimares added this situation is worse outside of Buenos Aires.

“The situation is different, depending on the location, and even more so in other provinces,” she said. “Even living in the province of Buenos Aires isn’t the same as living in Salta, or in Jujuy, or in Corrientes, or in provinces where the population is more conservative, where the discourse from the churches is much stronger, where all of this has a much crueler impact.”

“Milei’s discourse has legitimatized all of this,” added Guimares.

Amore said Argentina before Milei “had been a beacon” for human rights around the world.

“We’ve been building these laws with a lot of struggle, a lot of effort, with allies, and it wasn’t enough because we didn’t reach our goal,” she said. “These are very young. Our democracy is very young; we have a 40-year-old democracy and we are talking about a Gender Identity Law that is 12-years-old.

Amore added Milei is trying to erase trans and travestí people. Ruiz, an activist and actress who founded Siete Colores Diversidad, an advocacy group, agreed.

“It is a cultural battle for us,” Ruiz told the Blade, referring for the continued struggle for trans and travestí rights in Argentina.

“It marks a cultural paradigm shift that we were carrying out day after day, making ourselves visible,” she added. “We carried it out by making ourselves politically visible, by presenting our travestí and trans Latin American visibility as a beacon to the world.”

The activists spoke with the Blade less than three months after Trump took office.

The American president, like Milei, has targeted the trans community with executive orders and policy directives. These include banning the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers and prohibiting trans adults and young people from sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.

Solana, a trans woman from Peru who advocates on behalf of migrants, noted one of the first executive orders that Trump signed directed the federal government to only recognize two genders: Male and female.

“Man and woman. Period,” she said.

Guimares added Milei’s anti-LGBTQ discourse isn’t even his “original speech, but rather a line drawn from the U.S. government of Donald Trump and its agenda, which he established from the beginning and which he campaigned on as well.”

“This also follows in line with parties like Vox in Spain and other European countries, where we see how in Hungary, where an LGBTI Pride march (in Budapest) is now banned, and in other countries around the world where the population is having a really hard time,” said Guimares. “So, it’s not something original from Milei, but rather he’s taking part in those political agendas to generate strategies and alliances to be able to access economic resources.”

Amore, for her part, urged her American counterparts to continue the fight.

“Don’t let down your guard,” said Amore. “Organize. Come together. Speak out. Become visible in community. Respect the diversity of voices and put your own voices first and make yourselves more visible.”

The updated policy came into force on April 1 and continues the practice of allowing transgender women to play in amateur women’s competitions if they have had reduced testosterone levels for at least a year.

Campaigners had wanted football to follow sports such as rugby union and hockey by restricting women’s matches to those who were born female, with an open category for all other players.

Instead, about 20 transgender women registered to play amateur football in England can continue to do so if their testosterone levels are below 5nmol per litre for at least 12 months. However, a change to the regulations means the FA can step in if it has any concerns and ask its Transgender and Non-Binary Eligibility Committee to make a decision.

 

The new FA rules state: “Where there is an issue about a player’s eligibility, efforts will always be made to resolve it through dialogue between the player, the county FA and the FA.

“In any case where (1) the FA does not approve a player’s application to participate in matches in the women’s game following a match observation, or (2) the FA reasonably considers on the ground of (A) safety to competitors and/or (B) fairness of competition that it might be necessary to withdraw a player’s eligibility to participate in matches in the women’s game having previously granted such eligibility under this policy, the player or the FA may refer the matter to the FA’s Transgender and Non-Binary Eligibility Committee for determination.”

Players’ medical records of hormone therapy have to be verified at least annually, before the start of each season, “and more often at the FA’s discretion”, according to the rules.

There are no transgender women playing in or even close to the elite level in England. It is understood that if this changes, the FA would seek advice from Fifa — however the policy of world football’s governing body is also around reduced testosterone levels, rather than a full ban.

In September Sutton United women’s team postponed their fixture against Ebbsfleet United after the club were criticised for signing a transgender goalkeeper, Blair Hamilton. Sutton’s manager, Lucy Clark, was the first openly trans referee before her appointment by the club in January 2024.

There have been no cases to date of transgender women wishing to play in professional or international women’s football.

The new FA policy follows a lengthy review and has been drawn up with input from two KCs. The FA is understood to wish to promote inclusion as a priority but to be able to intervene when there are concerns.

In November there was a protest against the FA’s transgender policy outside Wembley before the England men’s match against Ireland in response to a 17-year-old girl being banned for two matches over remarks she made to a transgender opponent in a grassroots match. She was sanctioned after she was found to have repeatedly asked a transgender opponent during a match: “Are you a man?”

Last month the FA’s chief executive, Mark Bullingham, said the governing body was “in the right place” with its transgender eligibility policy. “We do continue to look at areas that we might refine,” he added.

A disturbing TikTok video has gone viral showing the moment a transgender woman was verbally assaulted at a restaurant in San Francisco.

Content creator Lilly Contino was dining with her dog at the Cheesecake Factory in San Francisco’s Union Square while live-streaming a conversation with her followers when an unidentified woman began harassing her.

In the footage, the woman is heard proudly describing herself as a TERF to Ms Contino – an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist meaning a person who sees themself as a feminist but who is transphobic.

“You know I’m a TERF right? Trans-eccentric radical feminist,” the woman is heard saying off-camera.

When Ms Contino asks if she is a TERF, the woman doubles down saying: “I am a TERF.”

She then asks Ms Contino if she wants her to move away, to which Ms Contino responds: “No, actually, you should tell me about being a TERF.”

At that point, the woman misgenders Ms Contino saying: “You’re a boy, right?”

She then begins to threaten Ms Contino with physical violence.

“Don’t f*** with me, ‘cause honestly I hit. I hit hard,” she says.

The incident continues with the woman telling Ms Contino not to “judge” her for being a TERF and telling her “I get to be who I want to be and you get to be who you want to be”.

She then tells Ms Contino to “take your stupid dog, eat your f***ing food and get the f*** out of my life” before saying she will “have to label you a white racist”.

Ms Contino then asks to speak to the manager of the restaurant who is heard off-camera apologising for the incident.

Ms Contino shared a clip of the encounter on her TikTok platform and, as of Monday morning, it had racked up 9.7 million views.

Story continues

Ms Contino explained to KPIX that the harassment first began when the woman started telling jokes and then offered to show her a surgery scar on her stomach.

When she politely turned her down, the woman replied: “I’ll show you if I want to, son.”

“And, of course, as a trans person, I’m more sensitive to gender language,” Ms Contino said.

She said that she became more shocked as the incident went on, saying that nothing like that had ever happened to her before.

She was especially shocked, she said, given that she had moved from Georgia to the liberal city of San Francisco.

“I was just like flabbergasted. I’ve never been physically threatened in public. I’ve never been berated in public,” she said.

“Part of this was just shock and disbelief that this was happening. I live in San Francisco for a reason. I live here because it’s a liberal city, it’s one of the most queer-friendly cities in the world.

“To have it happen in such a public place and have nobody help.”

Despite public outcry both during and after its meeting, the Greenville County Library System’s Materials Committee voted Monday to advance a proposal limiting access to transgender-themed materials.

The full board of trustees will vote on the proposal later this month.

The committee debated changing the library system’s collections development and maintenance policy, which governs the type of books and materials that are included in the library.

The committee specifically proposed changes to the library’s juvenile and young adult collections, seeking to move materials with “gender transition ideologies” into other collections that require an adult-access library card to check out.

In its proposed policy changes, the committee also sought to limit access to materials containing explicit descriptions or depictions of sexual acts, incest, pedophilia and graphic depictions of violence or abuse.

Although the committee is only made up of five board members, all 10 Board of Trustee members were present at the meeting either in-person or virtually to debate the proposed changes.

Employees and advocates:Greenville County Library System has ‘toxic’ board leadership

Greenville County Library System’s Materials Committee reviews 24 books, chooses broader action

The committee was expected to make a decision regarding the fate the 24 books that have been under review since last November, but instead of issuing permanent bans on any of those books, the committee focused instead on the library’s larger collections policy.

The committee was initially tasked by the board last fall to review 24 books, many with LGBTQ+ themes, that were subject to scrutiny from the county GOP and board members themselves.

A single copy of each of the following books was removed from circulation pending that review:

• “Adventures with My Daddies”
• “Daddy & Dada”
• “Feminist Baby Finds Her Voice”
• “Generation Brave: The Gen Z Kids Who Are Changing the World”
• “Heather Has Two Mommies”
• “It’s Perfectly Normal”
• “It’s So Amazing: A Book About Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families”
• “Love, Violet”
• “Pride Puppy”
• “Sex Is A Funny Word”
• “Stella Brings The Family”
• “Teo’s Tutu”
• “You Don’t Have To Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves”
• “Gender Queer”
• “Lawn Boy”
• “All Boys Aren’t Blue”
• “Out of Darkness”
• “The Hate U Give”
• “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”
• “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”
• “The Bluest Eye”
• “This Book is Gay”
• “Beyond Magenta”

After its decision to review those books, the library system faced accusations of censorship from employees and local advocates.

The committee formally completed that review at its meeting on Monday, but it took no action to ban any of the books. Instead, the committee focused on making changes to the board’s broader collections policy.

Committee debate focuses on limiting transgender themes

Most of Monday’s discussion centered around the policy’s limitations on materials with transgender themes.

Joe Poore, vice chair of the board of trustees but not a voting member of the materials committee, expressed concerns about the proposals vague language, asking if it would disproportionately target the LGBTQ+ community.

Other board members expressed similar concerns about vague language, prompting committee chair Elizabeth Collins to include a further definition that gender transition ideologies are “anything that affirms that a person’s gender is other than that person’s biological sex.”

Marcia Moston, a materials committee member, spoke in favor of the proposed changes. She called access to children’s books with transgender themes “life threatening for our youth.”

Members of the public are not allowed to speak at library committee meetings, but attendees still expressed their outrage at Moston’s remarks by rising from their seats and waving posters in support of access to books with LGBTQ+ themes.

Tommy Hughes, a committee member, along with Kenneth Baxter and Brian Aufmuth, both board members who are not on the committee, all raised the point that librarians are already trained to ensure that content in each collection is age appropriate.

Later in the meeting, Aufmuth said the proposed policy changes were seeking to solve a problem that doesn’t really exist. His comment was met with snaps, claps and muffled support from the audience.

Poore said he fears the board could be overstepping its role with this policy. He said parents should be responsible for what their children read in the library, and the board should “empower and encourage that responsibility.”

After more than an hour of debate, the committee voted unanimously to advance its juvenile policy changes to the full board. One committee member, Tommy Hughes, abstained from voting on the young adult policy changes, but it still passed with four votes.

The full board of trustees will meet at noon on Monday, March 27, at Hughes Main Library to vote on the proposed policy changes.

− Tim Carlin covers county government, growth and development for The Greenville News. Follow him on Twitter@timcarlin_, and get in touch with him atTCarlin@gannett.com.

Virginia parents with differing viewpoints sounded off on school policies they say harmed children at Tuesday’s Loudoun County Public Schools board meeting.

One year ago, LCPS passed Policy 8040 to follow Virginia Department of Education guidelines put forth by the previous Democratic administration to protect transgender students. It requires employees to address students by their chosen “name and gender pronouns” and gives students access to the bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams that match their gender identity. The decision sparked a backlash among parents, particularly because it did not require parents to be notified or approve of changes made to their child’s gender identity.

Several parents came to the meeting Tuesday to demand schools comply with new guidelines released last month by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R., which says parents must sign off on changes to their child’s gender identity and assures accommodations will be made. It also separates sports by biological sex.

“I implore you to adopt Gov. Youngkin’s new Model Policy in place of existing Policy 8040. The fact that parents have to advocate and fight for their parental right is absolutely absurd,” Michelle Warner, a mother of two Loudoun County students told the board. 

VIRGINIA GOV. YOUNGKIN DEFENDS TRANSGENDER POLICIES AFTER STUDENT PROTESTS: PARENTS WILL NOT BE ‘EXCLUDED’

“LCPS seems to think they are better equipped to discuss sexuality, feelings, body image, morals and such over their own parents,” she continued.

Another parent, Abbie Platt, urged the board to “honor” the new policies, after she tearfully shared how her young boys were forced to use the bathroom while “little girls” watched them last year. “There are obvious challenges with what happened last year… Do the right thing,” she told the board.

Amy Paul read an excerpt from a novel she said was currently in six public elementary schools called “It Feels Good to be Yourself.” She blasted the book as “propaganda” that “encourages” young children to question their gender.

Parents Clint and Erin Thomas likened the board to a “cult” who uses “disassociation from the family, love bombing and indoctrination” on children.

CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR ACCUSES LOUDOUN COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD OF BEING ‘CHILD ABUSERS’

“This board thinks you’re part of the problem, which means they need to protect your child from you,” he warned fellow Loudoun County parents.

Other parents and educators pushed back against these claims and urged the board to continue with Policy 8040.

Brenda Bengston, who taught in the Loudoun County Public School district for 31 years, said the parent movement was “all political” and had become a “training ground” for attracting media attention.

She defended the transgender policy to Fox News Digital, saying teachers had the students’ best interest at heart. “We need to be interested in our students and not what we have as a bias, to bring it in with us,” she said. The former teacher said her role was to “welcome” students, not question them. 

MARYLAND STATE SENATOR SPEAKS OUT AFTER STUDENT RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT MIXED-GENDER LOCKER ROOMS

Bengston said the rules were necessary because some students “don’t feel like they can talk to their parents.”

Fellow supporter and longtime Loudoun County resident Tammy Cummins agreed that not informing parents was the right move because “Some homes are not safe. Unfortunately some people feel that every parent is a good parent. But we know that is not true.”

She shared about seeing abused children in her practice and recounted how she observed many homeless youth in the area were LGBTQ. 

Cummins praised students for being “way ahead of their parents in accepting that transgender students are here to stay.” She compared the treatment of transgender-identifying students to how “lesbian, bisexual and gay” students were treated “20, 30 years ago.”

LOUDOUN COUNTY PARENTS HAMMER SCHOOL BOARD, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AS CONTROVERSIES CASCADE

Kerry Kidwell, a parent of two teenagers told the board that children are “young individuals not our property.” She said Youngkin’s guidelines would make school “less safe.”

She warned about transgender kids being “emotionally abused” by their parents. “It’s normal for parents to want their children to share with them, I certainly do, but let’s trust the children who tell us that it’s not safe to do so.”

Loudoun County parent and executive director of Fight for Schools Ian Prior argued it wasn’t the school’s job to socially transition kids. 

Speaking to Fox News Digital, he warned the next steps after socially transitioning were puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, mastectomies, surgery and other health issues. “For them to take parents out of that discussion, its extremely concerning and the government should not be in that role.”

Canadian activist and father Chris Elston, better known as “Billboard Chris” because he travels across North America wearing signs protesting gender-affirming surgeries and puberty blockers for minors, also showed up at the LCPS meeting. He told Fox News Digital that this wasn’t a political issue and that parents on both sides he speaks to don’t want their kids “sterilized.” He condemned the school board for trying to “hide” the issue from parents.

“We have to put a stop to this,” Elston said. “What do we say to our kids when an adult wants to keep something secret from their mom and dad? For all of history we’ve known this as wrong. But now the schools are pushing this as policy? It’s totally insane.”

FLORIDA COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD MAY REVISE POLICY AFTER TEACHER CLAIMS OVER 100 BOOKS VIOLATED STATE LAW

Elston argued that schools were pushing this “social contagion” on kids to not accept the body they were born in and likened it to abuse.

“What an abusive thing to say to a child, that they might be born in the wrong body because they might feel like a misfit right now… They are beautiful and perfect the way they are. That’s the message of true acceptance,” he said.

The school board has not indicated if they will follow the governor’s guidance. When reached for comment, the LCPS board referred Fox News Digital to a statement on their website that read in part “LCPS is carefully considering the model policies and whether they require any changes to LCPS policies in order to comply with Federal and State law. LCPS wants to assure our families that we will continue to provide a learning environment that is safe, welcoming, affirming, and academically rigorous for all students, regardless of the impact of the 2022 Model Policies.”

The school board has previously defied the Republican governor’s orders when it came to mask mandates.

LOUDOUN COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS HIT WITH LAWSUIT FOR ‘MORAL CORRUPTION OF CHILDREN,’  PARENTAL ‘VIOLATIONS’

Parents against Policy 8040 were doubtful the board would comply with the governor’s order.

“Governor Youngkin just passed new guidance telling the entire state of Virginia to stop doing this, but they’re ignoring it, and they’re going to keep hiding this from parents.” Elston added, “They’re not going to follow it.” 

Clint Thomas stated, “I suspect this is going to be a continued board that rejects the governor’s mandate. I suspect most counties in Virginia will actually comply with that just like they complied with Northam’s guidelines earlier. So we’re hoping that takes place.”

He added, “But I’m expecting more lawsuits and more battle in that area.”

Thomas, along with 11 other parents, are the plaintiffs in a lawsuit by America First Legal against the school board last June that demands transparency about how the transgender policy came to be.

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The Northern Virginia suburb about 30 miles outside Washington D.C. has been the home to several controversies in the past two years, including accusations they covered up a sexual assault by a boy wearing a skirt.

The parent protests across the nation over critical race theory, mask mandates, low academic standards, and equity and inclusion curriculum in schools, has garnered attention at the federal level. 

Layne Ingram’s advocacy for Greater Lansing’s transgender community has landed him a spot on national television.

Ingram is scheduled to be on the Dr. Phil TV show at 4 p.m. Friday on CBS with Olympic swimmer Nancy Hogshead-Makar, Harvard University human evolutionary biology professor Carole Hooven and swimmer Riley Gaines, who competed against trans woman Lia Thomas.

The Lansing Community College’s women’s basketball coach said a producer contacted him in the summer after reading his excerpt in a 2021 USA Today article exploring the political discourse surrounding transgender youth in sports.

“I hope that (the audience members) get an understanding that sports do so much for people and that we’re talking about kids,” Ingram said. “All kids deserve the opportunity to belong and interact with their peers. I hope they see a person who’s just like anyone they’ve met — a Black guy who’s smart and being a good citizen.”