Cathy Ruse

Family Research Council Warns that 'Radical' Girl Scouts are out to 'Get Our Kids'

The Family Research Council recently called for boycotts and prayer requests against the Girl Scouts, typically by pushing a false and misleading claim that Girl Scouts are distributing brochures from Planned Parenthood and suggesting that proceeds from Girl Scout Cookies go to the women’s health group, which is also not true.

Yesterday, FRC president Tony Perkins spoke with FRC senior fellow Cathy Ruse on Today’s Issues, the program Perkins co-hosts with American Family Association president Tim Wildmon, where Ruse attacked the Girl Scouts for hiring LGBT staff members and supporters of gay and abortion rights. Perkins explained that the reason the “progressive agenda” is targeting Girl Scouts for “liberal indoctrination” is because “they’re not having kids [and] so they want to make sure they can get our kids.” Perkins said the Girl Scouts’ decision to hire LGBT staffers, unlike the Boy Scouts which bans gays, is “like leaving the door wide open at the chicken coop for the fox”:

Ruse: They have been taken over by these radicals, and there’s no other word for them, they’ve got people on their board that are also on the board of the Human Rights Campaign and push for same-sex marriage, they’ve got people on their board that outwardly promote abortion and work in clinics on the side, it’s been taken over. The Girl Scouts’ leadership is completely now at odds with what I believe most of the families of the girls think Girl Scouts is all about.

…

Perkins: Folks we couldn’t make this up. Truth is stranger than fiction in this city and in this nation when we see really the progressive agenda behind this liberal indoctrination, they are going to where the kids are. They’re not having kids so they want to make sure they can get our kids, and they are going to these organizations. As you described Tim, Boy Scouts have been at the forefront of saying ‘hey look, we’re standing true to our founding values, we’re not departing from that, we’re not going to go down to this path of political correctness,’ and a lot of people think, ‘well, the Girl Scouts are probably the same way.’ In fact, it’s really like leaving the door wide open at the chicken coop for the fox.
Brian Tashman's blog

Planned Parenthood did not Teach Girl Scouts how to Lead Happy Sex Lives while Living with HIV

Amid the news that the Susan G. Komen Foundation may (or may not) be reversing its decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, it is worth taking a moment to realize just how ridiculous yet effective the right-wing campaign against Planned Parenthood has been.

For instance, back in 2010, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute alleged that during a United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, the Girl Scouts "hosted a no-adults-welcome panel at the United Nations ... where Planned Parenthood was allowed to distribute a brochure entitled 'Healthy, Happy and Hot' [which] contains explicit and graphic details on sex, as well as the promotion of casual sex in many forms."

The only problem was that it wasn't true.  As the Girl Scouts explained, all the organizations at the conference had been using the same rooms and so if there were any Planned Parenhood brochures present in the room when they held their meeting, it was only because they had been left behind after previous sessions.

As we pointed out back in 2010, the enitre allegation doesn't even make sense as the purpose of the brochure in question is aimed at teaching people about how to lead sexually fulfilling lives while living with HIV?  Are we really supposed to believe that the Girl Scouts kicked everyone out of the room so that Planned Parenthood could present this information to a bunch of young girls? 

But the fact that the entire thing is fundamentally absurd, all of the Religious Right's anti-Planned Parenthood crusders ate it up and have repeated it ad nauseum until it has gotten to the point where it is now so accepted as fact that Girl Scout leaders have to spend time repeatedly swatting down the rumor while losing sales:

For decades The Girl Scouts of America has been dedicated to helping young girls learn life skills. But now the organization is having to defending itself against a rumor that they say is disrupting sales of their biggest fund raiser - cookies.

The rumor started two years ago and connects the Girl Scouts to Planned Parenthood.

The CEO of the Silver Sage Girl Scouts Council, Shelli Rambo Roberson says the rumor has been fueled by social media sites and blogs, and for some reason, it's gaining traction this year.

Roberson says the rumor started at a global forum in Europe about the status of women in the world.

“Out of that came a rumor that there was some training given to girls from Planned Parenthood, and there is absolutely no merit to that,” said Roberson.

The rumor claims sexually explicit information was given to the Girl Scouts by members of Planned Parenthood.

“There's no partnership or interaction between Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood,” said Roberson.

Even though the incident allegedly happened two years ago, they're now seeing more people reacting.

“We have girls report to us that people have said they won't support them,” said Roberson.

Within the four Girl Scout offices in south Idaho, they've received over 200 phone calls from concerned citizens and e-mails continue to fill their in boxes.

And it is no wonder that the Girl Scouts have to keep dealing with this considering that groups like the Family Research Council, which employs the wife of the president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute which started the rumor in the first place, continue to spread it:

It looks like liberals finally got caught with their hands in the cookie jar! After people like FRC's Cathy Ruse started exposing the connection between the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood, more customers are pulling their support from the annual fundraiser. One news outlet in Idaho, says more than 200 people have complained, bringing cookie sales to one of their lowest points. Shelli Rambo Roberson, the CEO of the local Council, claims there's no partnership. It's just a "rumor," she told reporters.

Not so, says Cathy, who has plenty of documentation from a special U.N. "Girls Only" workshop co-hosted by Planned Parenthood and the Girl Scouts. The workshop included a graphic sex manual called "Healthy, Happy, and Hot," full of ideas too pornographic to repeat. It's part of a joint project to bring "better sexual health" to girls as young as 10. And while some troop leaders are committed to raising women of integrity, we can't turn a blind eye to the Girl Scout headquarters, which is bombarding girls with topics like abortion, contraception, and homosexuality.

Kyle Mantyla's blog

Family Research Council Launches Boycott of Girl Scout Cookies

Today on his daily radio bulletin, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins urged listeners to boycott Girl Scout cookies. Perkins claimed that the cookies fund a “political agenda” which includes Planned Parenthood and “promoting sexual ‘diversity,’” attacking the Girl Scouts for their alleged ties to Planned Parenthood and for accepting transgender members. Anti-choice groups have frequently criticized the Girl Scouts for purportedly distributing a Planned Parenthood brochure at a workshop with about thirty girls at the United Nations, which the organization denies, but that hasn’t stopped activists from calling on women to leave the “radical, feminist, pro-abortion” Girl Scouts.

Despite claims that money might go to Planned Parenthood, “none of the money earned from any Girl Scout council-sponsored cookie sale is given to any other group,” and the group says it “does not take a position on family planning.” However, FRC senior fellow Cathy Cleaver Ruse said the group has “been pro-choice for years” and also knocked the Girl Scouts for employing “cross-dressers” and for not discriminating against transgender scouts.

Perkins: Someone else has their hand in the Girl Scouts cookie jar--and it's not who think. Hello, I'm Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. There are plenty of politics behind that box of Thin Mints, and you should know what they are before you go buying one. As sweet as the girls are, a lot of that cookie dough goes to straight to the group's political agenda. When they aren't partnering with Planned Parenthood, they're promoting sexual "diversity." Last year, the Girl Scouts decided to admit boys who dress as girls--which shouldn't come as a surprise, says FRC's Cathy Ruse, since they have a cross-dresser in their front office. And that's not all. "Earlier this month, a Girl Scout Employee... made the mistake of stopping by the office to do extra work on her own time in a T-shirt [that said] 'Pray to End Abortion.' A supervisor ordered her to turn the shirt inside out or leave the office. She left, for good." So, says Cathy Ruse, should we all.
Brian Tashman's blog
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