(Image Source: KUSA)

BY LAURA DAVISON
ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY

You're watching multisource global video news analysis from Newsy.
 

A 7-year-old Colorado boy likes “girl stuff” like dolls, ponies and pink. But is that enough for Bobby Montoya to join a local Girl Scout troop? CNN talked with Bobby after a troop leader told him ‘no’.

“It’s like hurting my heart. What does it feel like when they talk down to you? It hurts me and my mom both.”

Bobby cried when he was told that he couldn’t be a Girl Scout, but his mother continued to press the troop leader.

“I said, ‘Well, what’s the big deal?’ She said, ‘It doesn’t matter how he looks. He has boy parts, he can’t be a Girl Scout. Girl Scouts don’t allow that. I don’t want to get in trouble by parents or my supervisor.”

As it turns out, the troop leader was wrong. Girl Scouts of Colorado responded saying that Bobby could be a Girl Scout, and that they would accept any child who identified as a girl and whose family presented them as a girl. KUSA in Colorado has this statement from the Girl Scouts.

“Our requests for support of transgender kids have grown, and Girl Scouts of Colorado is working to best support these children, their families and the volunteers who serve them.”

CNN reported that children are beginning to question sexuality at an earlier age, and that organizations for children need to have policies in place to address that. But clinical Psychologist Shawn Worthy cautions KUSA that it’s important for parents to be guardians, as well as advocates for their children.

“It’s great for her to support her son, but there is also an external piece of the world that is not going to be so friendly probably. I think, my recommendation to her, although I have not seen the kid or he family, would be to find some balance, to try to help him negotiate the world in a way that is going to be fully himself, but at the same time, not always a target.”

But LGBTQ communities are flagging this decision as a win for transgender children. But Just Out Magazine, an Oregon-based publication, still believes there is a lot of room for improvement, especially for Boy Scouts.

“When it comes to the nation’s major scouting organizations, it’s clear that girls really are better than boys. While the Boy Scouts of America continues to hold steadfastly to its anti-gay policies, Girl Scouts not onlyprohibits on the basis of sexual orientation but also strives to be inclusive of transgender girls.”