Woodcraft Folk - A letter in support of Trans Inclusion

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

woodcraft.org.uk/news/letter-support-trans-inclusion

Summary:

Stonewall says that transkids are all suicidal.

Meanies are suing the guides.

No evidence that trans people are dangerous.

We love you, cis or trans.

They have also tweeted about it here: twitter.com/woodcraftfolk/status/1167002700086689792?s=19

A couple of people have had a go at refuting it, Helen Watts has been tweeted in, and someone (who unfortunately obviously doesn't know how to thread tweets) has gone on a bit of a rant.

I know it's Woodcraft Folk who you would expect to be totally lentil weavery, but it's still a bit shocking that they, like scouts and guides, have come out as science denying and crap at safeguarding.

Anything that has either state or private funding will be backing the TRA narrative.

That's just how it is with social engineering.

Do WCF, guides et al get state funding?

Perhaps we should set up a Mumsnet youth organisation.

Fgs not the woodcraft folk as well 🤦🏻‍♀️ is there any organisation that hasn’t been stonewalled??

When people talk about 'inclusion' do they not consider who they 'de facto' exclude.

Do they not do impact assessments? Do they really take the word of a single lobby group as gospel?

Any decision that de facto will reduce the inclusion by women and girls from conservative cultural backgrounds is very worrying. Racist even.

is there any organisation that hasn’t been stonewalled??

I thought maybe Girls Brigade might be a hold out but no. This is from their inclusion policy

It is The Girls’ Brigade in Scotland's (“GBS”) policy not to discriminate against its workers, members or volunteers on the basis of their gender, sexual orientation, marital or civil partner status, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, disability or age, pregnancy or trade union membership or the fact that they are a part-time worker or a fixed-term employee.

Note the lack of the word SEX.

They also have an entire section of their policy guidelines dedicated to 'Supporting Adult Volunteers Gender Identity'

There was a previous thread on Woodcraft Folk a while back after a facebook argument. Deborah Orr said that it was that argument that peaked her - I think she might be involved with them. There are definitely gender critical people in Woodies

However, one thing to bear in mind about the Woodies (I went to it when I was a kid) is that they were always totally co-ed, which included things like boys and girls sharing tents.

Since the Brexit debacle, racism has basically been given the nod by those in power. This only furthers their cause. How dare any woman, especially women from a non-Christian religious background refuse to share their space with men!

There are women pushing back in small ways.

The problem is these small ways are being completely ignored by those in power.

It seems that regulatory capture is pretty much complete

WF is mixed sex anyway. Dd was desperate to join so we went to a session and a group of boys were allowed to mess around and dominate everything so it didn’t work for her.

A letter in support of girl exclusion.

If you believe in male supremacy have the guts to fucking own it.

WF is mixed sex anyway.

No issue with it being mixed sex.

Have issue with the way the mixed sexes will be managed in situations where it may be an issue.

Have issue with the way issues about feminism, sex, sexuality will be discussed.

Have issue with them trotting out the "if you're trans you have a fifty fifty chance of attempting suicide line.

Have issue with their disingenuous comment about girl guides "being sued because they are trans inclusive"

Mixed sex environments are fine as long it is managed with awareness of the needs of the different sexes. If there is no such thing as sex this can't be done.

woodcraft.org.uk/news/letter-support-trans-inclusion - page not found - did anyone take a screenshot of this? The tweet about it is still up twitter.com/woodcraftfolk/status/1167002700086689792?s=19 but leads to the same 'page not found'.

The trouble is that excluding women (by failing to offer single sex spaces) is often invisible. Those women silently withdraw.

Inclusivity is a false concept covering up the fact that what they are demanding is a complete rewrite of how spaces are segregated. It’s the presentation of a positive slant to something utterly selfish.

The modern iteration of “spin”.

Nothing 'loving' requires forcing other people to pretend that someone is something they materially are not to the detriment of other people.

And threatening harm if not complied with is coercive control and abuse.

My best friend since childhood (we're mid-40s) grew up as part of woodcraf folk.

She said her experience was that it was really sexist, constant bleating about "co-operation" and what that boiled down to was the women /girls doing all the shit work and being shamed for their lack of "co-operation" if they didn't.

So basically an earlier version of be kind.

I was a WF leader for 3 years. I liked the mixed sex aspect but we certainly did not mix boys and girls in the sleeping accommodation on camps. We had several children with very different communication, including a child with Down syndrome and autistic children. We tried to be as good as we could be on safeguarding and equity of access to our activities. I personally think WF head office is quite weak on supporting leaders to include children with communication barriers and in thinking in depth about a lot of issues, but we did our best.

I saw a while ago, after I'd left, that they started one website page with 'Everyone has a gender identity....' and that was that. Not surprising.

I would have been happy to include gender nonconforming children but not at the expense of safeguarding.

It's archived here:

archive. li/ NhlXo

(Take out the spaces)

Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Brighton Kemptown Lab MP who has been accused of intimidating and insulting GC women) was involved with WF, even chaired it, if Wikipedia is correct.

My thanks to ItsAllGoingToBeFine on 22/07/2023 for the archive link to the Woodcraft "A Letter in Support of Trans Inclusion", dated 25 October 2019, as follows:
Originally shared: 28/08/2019 / Latest update: 25/10/2019
Woodcraft Folk have drafted this letter and sought the support of other youth organisations as co-signatories because we are dismayed at how national media outlets are whipping up hatred towards trans children.
All children and young people need access to spaces and activities which provide them with opportunities for personal development, to create connections with peers and to support their wellbeing. This is especially the case for trans and non-binary children and young people.
Research has found that nearly half (48 per cent) of trans people under 26 said they had attempted suicide, and 30 per cent said they had done so in the past year, while 59 per cent said they had considered doing so (Stonewall, 2015). 64 per cent of trans pupils are bullied for being LGBT in Britain's schools (Stonewall, 2017). Youth organisations have a vital role to play in supporting these children and young people.
Each of our organisations takes a different approach, provides different opportunities or serves a different range of children and young people but together, as youth organisations, we all exist to support children and young people, their mental health and their overall wellbeing. As such, we cannot allow any attempts to exclude trans young people from the spaces and activities that we provide, or allow them to be discriminated against in any way.
The news that another youth organisation is facing legal action simply for standing by their commitment to be inclusive of trans young people is extremely alarming. This attack, which seeks to dismantle the legal protections and rights of vulnerable individuals, has implications for all of us.
There is no evidence that trans children, young people or volunteers present any greater safeguarding risk than their cis peers. To suggest this is the case is using unfounded prejudice to stir up hate and create a climate of fear. This must stop.
At this time, we want all children and young people to know that our organisations will support you regardless of whether you are cis or trans and whether you are certain of your gender identity or questioning it. We will provide training and guidance to ensure you are not discriminated against and that everyone involved in providing our activities and services do their best for your wellbeing.

Signed by:
Debs McCahon and Sarah Welsh (Joint Chief Executives), Woodcraft Folk
Pip Sayers (Chair of Trustees), Woodcraft Folk
Amanda Chetwynd-Cowieson (Chair), British Youth Council
Leigh Middleton (Chief Executive Officer), National Youth Agency
Anna Smee (Chief Executive Officer), UK Youth
National Union of Students
The Steering Group, In Defence of Youth Work
Wolvercote Young People's Club
Leys CDI
John May
Youth Cymru
Swansea Music Art Digital
Charlotte Davies
Stuart Sumner Smith
Lisa Cordery
Switched On Drug and Alcohol Education Service
Dover Navigators
Benjamin Westwater
Peter Marcus, County Youth Commissioner, Hampshire Scouts
Vicky Maher

If you would like to add your name to the signatories of this letter as an organisation or an individual, please email your name (and role and organisation if applicable), to [email protected]

But it is good that they discriminate on the basis of sex right? So they exist for the female sex and not the male sex, those of the male sex are not included. I actually find this reassuring and I wish that Girl Guiding would also leave sex out of their inclusivity policy.

TBH I now read "inclusion" and "diversity" as weasel words that are at best meaningless platitudes, but quite often actually mean the opposite, people who think like us and make us feel good about their being here.