Here’s your inspiring story for the day: 17-year-old Samantha Garvey of Long Island moved into a homeless shelter with her family a year ago, but she still managed to become one of 300 semi-finalists for the annual Intel Science Talent Search. Garvey conducted a two and a half year study on aquatic ecosystems, which she describes in the video above. She says her family’s situation “motivates me to do the work I do. I want a better life. I want a home. I want to show other people that even though you’re going through something bad, there’s a brighter side to everything.”
A YouTube clip of a young girl asking people to boycott the sale of Girl Scout cookies surfaced on the Internet Wednesday after the organization decided to allow a 7-year-old transgender child into a troop in Colorado. The video is now unavailable on YouTube (it was made private by its creators), but in the short while it was up, it sparked a heated debate among conservative right-wing advocates and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights activists on the Web.
Buck Angel, who claims to be a transgender former Girl Scout, put up his own video on YouTube as a response. In the video, he pleads with people to support the Girl Scout program.
“I just want to give a shout to Girl Scouts for accepting transgender girls into the Girl Scouts troops,” Angel said. “Support Girl Scouts; they are amazing. Thin Mints being my favorite cookies, so please buy as many cookies as you can and help them to really get the message across that it’s not about anything other than showing love and respect and learning how to be a good person.”
The Girl Scouts of Colorado also spoke out in a statement released through the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in support of transgender children: “If a child identifies as a girl and the child’s family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout.”
Video: Buck Angel posted this video on YouTube. The caption of the video reads: “This is a video I made in response to the video made by the reportedly 14-year-old Girl Scout, parents and Scout alumni to boycott Girl Scout cookies because Girl Scouts has accepted transgender girls.” Credit: buckangelentertainment.com.
