Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Anyone who is still on-the-fence about whether or not the Girl Scouts have gone bad need only contact their external communications department and speak to Josh Ackley, a man who is the lead singer of a “homo-punk” band.
In an editorial written by Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, he reveals that Ackley has been working for the Girl Scouts since 2008. He became a prominent blogger for the organization in 2009 and is now the Scouts’ main and only spokesman since their public relations chief, Michelle Tompkins, left in a recent spate of headquarter staff exits.
The only problem with this picture is that Josh Ackley is hardly the kind of upstanding moral character most moms would want their daughters associated with. In his off-hours, he is a member of The Dead Betties band which is part of what is known as the “homo-punk” or “homocore” movement . This movement is described by Wikipedia as being “an offshoot of punk… distinguished by its discontent with . . . society’s disapproval of the gay, bi-sexual, lesbian and transgender communities.”
As Ruse points out, Girl Scout moms and girls probably know nothing about this man or his nefarious background.
“They will also not know that The Dead Betties put out a campy video that received MTV play in the mid-00s called ‘Hellevator’ where a sneering Ackley watches over a woman being stalked and then strangled on an elevator in an abandoned building,” Ruse writes.
Other Dead Bettie videos are even more graphic and feature simulated sex acts and the implied murder of women.
As difficult as this may be to believe, Josh Ackley has been the Scouts go-to man whenever the need arose to defend the organization from its many scandals in recent years.
For instance, it was Ackley who was sent to “quell the anger” of concerned mothers who became irate over news that the Girl Scouts hosted a panel at the UN Commission on the Status of Women where Planned Parenthood brochures were found. He was the man sent to attend a meeting with a group of angry mothers from St. Louis who demanded an explanation for the Scouts involvement in the panel.
“Do the Girl Scouts know about Josh Ackley’s after-hours activities?” Ruse asks.
“If they don’t, they soon will. Disbanded years ago, Josh has gotten the band back together. The Betties have recorded most of a new album and have made their re-debut November 30 at New York City’s Cake Shop.”
It’s no wonder that the Scouts’ ranks are shrinking and even their cookie sales are decreasing. When an organization strays this far from its founding principles, it no longer exists and ought to just come clean and call themselves something else – like the “Raising Women to be Objects Club”. Let’s face it, no mother would want her daughter in such a club, which is why the leaders of today’s version of the Girl Scouts have to hide behind the name that once meant raising wholesome, healthy and happy young women.
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