A wonderful essay on "scouting"

[Charlize]

This was recently posted by a FTM teacher at the school i attended.  He now supports students with gender issues and i was pleased to meet him at my 50th reunion from the school this spring.  Well worth the read!

 

https://www.salon.com/2017/10/21/the-boy-scout-i-never-was/

 

Hugs,

 

Charlize

[Jani]

A very good essay.   Interestingly the comments were not incendiary.  I liked this (partial) reply to one, though it didn't speak to the scouting aspect of the essay.  "While the specifics of moving from male to female and female to male differ, the motivations are essentially the same: they are all about identity, and really have nothing to do with "the grass is greener on the other side." We transsexuals think about this long and hard (because all we hold dear is at-risk), and we realize that when we change, we are gaining the problems of one side whilst losing the problems of the other (and having transgender problems besides!), BUT most of find the new problems worth the joy of being true to ourselves - very very few of us go back."  Hopefully the prior commenter who seemed supporting learned something.  

 

Changing my problems for new ones; thats an action I can understand!

 

Jani

[tracy_j]

An interesting read!

 

One of the sayings I often use, Jani, is that the difference between a man and a women is that they each inherit a different set of problems.

 

Tracy

[SteamGirlEva]

Personally, having been a boy scout, I don't think too highly of the organization. Granted, it could have only been my local troop, but I hated it so much. Cub scouts were fine and I made a few friends and the pack master was a wonderful women I still talk to on occasion, but Boy Scouts was horrible. They just put a bunch of kids into the woods with very little supervision and hope for the best. The only thing that scouts taught me was that the easiest way to turn a man into an animal was to remove supervision. Once men think nobody is watching to keep them in line they turn into beasts. 

 

I was personally attacked many times for not being "manly enough." It once it went so far that one of the older boys suggested I perform sexual acts on him because, 'If you want to be a girl so much that's what you have to do. That's all they are good for." I was 12 and he was 17. None of my "friends" helped me, they just stood around and laughed, some even egging him on to force me. The leadership did nothing to him, or any of them, and he went on to be a eagle scout. I didn't tell my mother why I wanted to quit, just that she should use the money set aside for scout camp for something else that year. That's when I left for good. I will not let my children into this organization. Ever. I don't care how inclusive they are or how much they want to "grow with the times." I feel nothing but fear for any girl who joins thinking she will have a good time doing outdoor activities. If I was treated like this as a feminine male (I wasn't out at the time but it was very obvious), I shudder to think what could happen to a female in that same position. 

[DenimAndLace]

The more transgender men I meet, the more I like them.  Of the few I know personally, there's something about being being male but socialized as female that just gives them a delightful mix of VERY masculine yet well connected to their emotions and empathetic towards others.

[Ravin]

My daughter had a horrible experience with girl scouts, very different from mine. It's a different program by far than what boy scouts offers. I might get my son into scouts now, if we can find a non-LDS affiliated pack.