Girl Guides are now GIRL ONLY!

[Iamwhoiamwhoareyou]

Following April's supreme court ruling, the Girl Guides have FINALLY made a statement and will remain GIRLS ONLY - Finally closing the door on admitting trans members or allowing BOYS to invade female only spaces/camp (which, would be done without informing parents that their daughter would be sharing a room with a biological male!) - I have a previous post in feminism chat for anyone wanting to read the previous thread on this

EMAIL RECEIVED HOT OFF THE PRESS 5 MIN AGO -

As the parent of a young member in Girlguiding, following April’s Supreme Court decision relating to sex and gender, we wanted to give you an update. Many organisations across the country have been facing complex decisions about what it means for girls and women and for the wider communities affected, including us.

Girlguiding’s governing charity documents set out that the membership and people who benefit from our organisation are girls and women. In April, the Supreme Court ruled that girls and women are defined in the Equality Act 2010 by their biological sex at birth.
Following detailed considerations, expert legal advice and input from senior members, young members and our Council, Girlguiding’s Board of Trustees has made the difficult decision that Girlguiding must change Girlguiding must change, following the Supreme Court’s ruling.

From today, 2 December, it is with a heavy heart that we are announcing trans girls and young women will no longer be able to join Girlguiding. This is a decision we would have preferred not to make, and we know that this may be upsetting for members of our community.

There will be no immediate changes for current young members but more information will be shared next week.

Most adult roles, including unit helpers, district helpers and administrative support, are already open to all, so we are confident that no volunteers will have to leave the organisation.

Girlguiding believes strongly in our value of inclusion, and we will continue to support young people and adults in marginalised groups. Over the next few months, we'll explore opportunities to champion this value and actively support young people who need us.

You can find our full statement and updated policy on our website.

We are proud to be the UK’s largest youth organisation dedicated to girls and is focused on creating an equal world for girls and young women. For over 100 years, we have been a welcoming space for all girls to have new experiences, support their communities, build friendships and grow their confidence.

While Girlguiding may feel a little different going forward, these core aims and principles will always be the same. We remain committed to treating everyone with dignity and respect, particularly those from marginalised groups that have felt the biggest impact of this decision.

If you have any immediate questions, we have our special support team in place, to give volunteers, parents and carers the best support we can. We are asking Girlguiding HQ, trading and country/region staff to refer any volunteer or parent who has questions about this announcement. Details below.

Contact [email protected] or 020 7532 3970
All calls/emails will be confidential, and the service will be open 24hrs, 7 days a week.
Find out more, including how this team will handle personal data.

Denise Wilson (Chair of Trustees), Felicity Oswald (CEO) and Tracy Foster (Chief Guide)

This is a fair and balanced point I think thank you.

Oooh! Blackcurrant sounds interesting.

I wasn't "dissing"! I was referring to her as "old pensioner" when the actual word in her name is "new". Genuine mistake. People find offence everywhere!

Girl Guides would be mixed sex if it let transgirls join

4 well. 2 autistic young adult ftm, one old mtf and one teen mtf who grew out of it in early 20s

so we should let adult males who have a fantasy life that involves them being a female join single sex children's organisations so they can 'relive their girlhood by nurturing the next generation' according to @dahliadream

No thank you. I don't want children used as props to facilitate the fantasy life of adults.

We don't care what some boy or man has about a fetish to have a 'girlhood', their wish is not our concern nor our responsibility. We care about the rights of the female sex. Why do you care more for a male's fantasy of a 'girlhood' than you do for actual females? Why do you put a boys wish above the sex-based needs and rights of girls?

Haha - touché!

Which would be fair enough. If they publicly declare themselves mixed sex everyone would know where they stand.

Superb news!!

Girls are not emotional support animals to be used for the validation of the feelings of trans identifying males.

My mother attended a mixed primary and then transferred to a state girls' only secondary. (It no longer exists. This would have been the 1930s.)

She used to tell me that she felt a sense of freedom when she moved to secondary school.

There is evidence that in mixed sex groups girls rein themselves in and boys dominate activities. That's why girls need single sex activities.

@Thinkingaloud85 thing is there are literally LOADS of mixed-sex youth organisations - scouts, sea cadets, air cadets, army cadet force, drama groups, orchestras, bands. Why can’t girls have ONE single sex space, especially in a nation that has many muslim and jewish girls who may be excluded from all the above groups on the basis that their faiths do no allow co-mingling in changing rooms/toilets/swimming and other activities?

Exactly! What’s wrong with women and girls putting down boundaries and saying no???

It’s brilliant news.

Their message is appallingly choc-full of hand-wringing, apologetic bullshit. It’s embarrassing that they did this in the first place. But then they’ve taken eight months to follow the law, wasted a ton of money and time getting ‘legal advice’ and added insult to injury with this disingenuous statement. A big clear out of all the bosses is needed.

I actually was in the Brownies and the Guides but not Rainbows. Not sure why I didn’t go to Rainbows. I can’t remember what age I was though. Old enough to know that I didn’t want boys there. Loved the badges, trips and getting my uniform! I was of the age when they changed from the stuffy uniform to.. hoodies! Ha good times.

There are lots of middle aged men who believe they have missed out on their ‘girlhood’ maybe they should let them join too.
Women don’t exist to affirm men/boys feelings. It’s a dangerous precedent to set to teach girls/young women to oppress their feelings in favour of male ones. Because they are sfill male.

Oh fecking hell. The ridiculous G&T comments have begun. Time to bow out!

You are welcome.

One of the things I have struggled with about this debate is the dichotomy of just because I support women having access to their spaces must mean I am anti-trans. I just because I support trans-people having access to health-care is that you are anti-women.

Something that gets lost in the conversation is the main difference between the strength of male vs female bodies. I did some research and now use the fact that females have roughly the equiv strength of a 12 year old boy as the first point in coversations.

This combined with the facts that females (unlike males) are most likely to be attacked by the opposite sex (that is 2x stronger than them), for sexual purposes, in private spaces explains why toilets/changing rooms/prisons and hospitals wards are single sex, and libraries, bars, schools etc... are mainly mixed.

I think we can be inclusive of trans-people in society, but not at the expense of the safety of women. People that persistently create conflict around that facts either have something to gain or are making a profit from the conflict at the expense of trans people.

I’m sorry but I think it’s awful.

It doesn’t affect adult unit leaders/volunteers because that is open to all. It only affects the young members, who are going to have to leave.

I can see that my views are radically out of kilter with the majority of people on here. So now i'm curious - by GG's logic and the logic of most of the posts on this thread, trans males should be still be welcome in this space? So those born biologically female but now identifying as male? And if not, why not, as surely you can't have it both ways.

They can't because their constitution states specifically that they are for girls - and they can't change it. It is all about how it was set up.

How can you know why females don't volunteer? It never dawned on you that women didn't volunteer because they didn't agree with GG including boys? You really truly cannot conceive of that? Because I would never volunteer for them. Because I would not want to support an organisation that shows such disregard for the needs and rights of girls.

So I don't believe they are still male, which is where our point of difference is. I'm speaking as someone with trans family members which is perhaps why my views opposed many of those here.