Some of you will have seen my previous threads here and in AIBU about Girlguiding's transgender policy. I, and many other Leaders (and parents), feel that they've got this one wrong. I've got a thread on AIBU about this but also wanted to post here too as there was so much interest and support.
Since we highlighted the issue of mixed accommodation without parental consent, and the suggestion that gender nonconforming girls get 'managed out', Girlguiding has been quietly updating the policy on the website, to try and accommodate parental concern that they didn't anticipate. This still doesn't address the underlying issues and there was no announcement of the changes; I only discovered them by comparing cached pages with the live webpage.
Fair Play For Women has put together an article comprehensively setting out the issues in black and white, asking for them to be addressed. They worked on this not just with me, but a number of other concerned Leaders and parents.
You can read a one page fact sheet that summarises our concerns here:
https://fairplayforwomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FPFWGirlguidess_factsheet.pdf
If you'd like to see the full article, which discusses our concerns in detail and is fully referenced, you can do that here:
https://fairplayforwomen.com/guide-leaders-call-for-halt/
If you share our concerns and would like to support this initiative, there is a (public) Facebook group where parents and Leaders can talk about it and add their voice. If we don't speak, no one will hear us:
https://m.facebook.com/groups/902343833223644
Policies which refuse to address the safeguarding of children need to be urgently questioned and clarified. At the moment, many organisations are being given bad advice, getting ahead of the law and misinterpreting the current legislation. Because, yet again, they are only getting one side of the story.
We want all children to benefit from Girlguiding, transgender or otherwise.
The policies need to reflect that everyone should be taken into account, without one group being prioritised to the detriment of another.
Feel free to tweet and otherwise share the links above so as many people as possible hear about this.
And finally, thank you to Fair Play For Women and the leaders and parents who contacted me after reading the other threads. I would never have been able to do this alone 