Today in institutions picking on children...

Can you tell by looking at this thing
what biological sex the person who
made it was born? No? Then shut up. 

Hey, do you know what couldn't possibly matter less when fashioning some stupid bird feeder out of an empty milk carton and some bird seed? A person's biological sex at birth. So it's kind of weird that an 8 year old boy called Joe Maldonado was kicked out of Cub Scouts because he was born biologically female. Weird and infuriating. Mostly infuriating. And what's even more infuriating-ier is that when he signed-up, the Troop was fully aware that he was transgender and none of his fellow scouts had a problem with it. So what gives?

You know, cranking out a couple
 kids doesn't actually entitle
you to the moral high ground.  

Some panicky parent Helen Lovejoy bullshit, that's what. Apparently, the scouts don't have a policy when it comes to transgender kids participating, so it was only after some of his fellow scouts' parents complained that Joe was asked to leave. Which, can we talk a little about how fucked up that is? Like, if you have some ridiculous problem with your kid making pinewood derby racers with a transgender fellow scout then pull them out and homeschcool them in your rapture shelter or whatever. Why should Joe suffer because some other kids' parents are dicks?

If anything these parents that wanted Joe out should have been forced to give a televised press conference where they explain, without the cloak of anonymity upon which so many bigots rely, exactly what their beef is. I think we, as a society, seriously underestimate the power of shame when it comes to calling out bigotry and besides, I wonder how many people would get over their bullshit if they could just hear what they sound like.

"Um...because uh, because we don't want our kid catching the gay...
oh, you know what? I hear it now. God, I do sound like an idiot. Sorry!"

-some idiot parent

Are they though?

You might remember a few years ago when the organization grudgingly joined the 20th century (you heard me) and lifted its ban on gay scouts-you know, as long as they're not all in your face about it-but for whatever reason the T in LGBT is just too much of a stretch for them.

"No youth may be removed from any of our programs on the basis of his or her sexual orientation. Gender identity isn't related to sexual orientations."

-Effie Delamarkos, BOA communications director,

earning the shit out her hair-splitting merit badge

This jackass got voted out of office
because he couldn't figure out the difference.

Which, wait-I-sorry, I was just caught a little off guard there. Because she's right, sexual orientation and gender identity are two completely different things. So, well done? I mean she's grasping a concept that LGBT rights proponents have been trying for years to get people to understand and that's cool. But what's not so cool is that she's using the distinction to justify kicking an 8-year old out of Scouts, so, you know, fuck you Effie.

Sorry. That was a little-wait, you know what? I'm standing by 'fuck you Effie.' I was in Scouts for a couple of years until I realized how much time it was taking away from video games and cartoons and I think Joe deserves the chance to discover how lame it is. I mean, because of the activities they do. Not how lame they are because they don't have the basic decency or fortitude to stick up to bigots in defense of an 8-year old kid.

Do these kids even know about PS4? Because I don't think they'd be tooling around
outdoors in those stupid outfits if they knew there was a new Final Fantasy game out.