Part of me doesn’t want my daughter in Girl Scouts. I’ve always thought that they don’t do as many cool things as the Boy Scouts do—like making macaroni necklaces, for example, while the boys build fires. Plus, she’s in so many activities already—4-H, taekwondo, music, piano, and a reader’s club all on top of our several homeschool groups—that I don’t want to overwhelm her!

But when I discovered that, unlike Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts accepts gays, and that Girl Scouts will let you change their pledge to honor whichever deity you like rather than the generic “god,” I was pretty impressed. “Maybe this is worth checking out,” I remember telling my husband—who could only groan at the thought of another activity in our lives.

Our own Girl Scouts adventure is on hold as of yet, but today I read something that makes me support the organization even more. The Girl Scouts not only welcomes lesbians; they also welcome transgender girls who identify as girls, even if they weren’t born as girls by hospital standards.

This is amazing! And while part of me balks at how something like this—which should be commonplace and already accepted and standard procedure for any girls’ organization—is amazing in the first place, I couldn’t stop crying when I thought of how transgender girls could have a place to be accepted and happy and simply participate in everyday activities. It’s too bad that transgender boys can’t say the same thing.

The sad thing in this story is that a transgender girl who attempted to join the Girl Scouts was denied access in the first place. When her mother went to the Scout leader’s superiors, however, a statement was quickly released that stated anyone who identified as a girl and whose parents presented her as a girl is welcome in Girl Scouts—and the original leader who denied the application will also be given sensitivity training.

Oh, Girl Scouts! Earlier this year, you stopped your use of palm oil and pledged to help support the cause, and now this? I am finding it hard to find fault with you at all (though taking “God” out of that pledge entirely would be super cool). God, how I wish the rest of the nation would look to you for leadership and political strategy and above all, policy. I hope that our future leaders grow from your organization (indeed, they must be!) and perhaps that will be the case someday.