Girlguiding - Supreme Court Decision email

[ProfMummBRaaarrrTheEverLeaking]

Have just had an email from them...

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.

Which of course is absolute bollocks - the law is the law, they just don't like it so spout bullshit lies about "interpretation".

It was "interpretation" that got us into this mess in the first place!!

Makes you realise how many people have been drawn into the affirmation route for children. It’s really quite scary how many adults seem to think that children have the understanding to make decisions which can have such a major impact on their future lives.

Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2 had a piece on this (around noon?). Helen Joyce was on! The trans side was the usual 'woe is me' shtick.

Just finished listening to that, that daft caller going on about experiences of girlhood basically all but admitting that's what the girls are there for now, validation props.

If a boy feels like he's a girl (whatever that means) his feeling like a girl shouldn't be contingent on doing an activity with a bunch of girls in the room who have to put up, shut up and smile sweetly. If it is contingent on that then it's a piss poor feeling, and a very low bar for what girls are expected to put up with for the sake of "kind".

Deep down, some people still haven't got their heads out of the idea that girls and women should be subservient when it comes down to it. Oh, they talk the talk about girls being brave and fearless, and strong and leaders. But the second a man or boy wants, they fall straight back to kind.

Am fed up with the woe is me shtick. I am not in the least bit heartless as to how upsetting it will be for trans girls to be told that they can no longer take part (unless GGUK hold a vote and change their constitution).

However, kids experience ‘disappointment’ throughout their lives - from parental abandonment, divorce, job losses all of which mean moving and changing after school clubs (or losing the opportunity to do them completely). My mum ran out of money and also had another child meaning that we muscled on with a 3m/1hour walk before and after ballet class with a buggy for nearly a year before she gave up in defeat. Disappointment teaches resilience.

But this disappointment is not borne out of transphobia - it is borne out of an organisation taking shit legal advice (or none at all) and buying into GI without any thought for the implications for little girls who a) were already members or b) could not now take part because of the presence of boys. It is borne out of idealistic, misinformed or - frankly - insane parents who genuinely seem to believe that saying ‘I am a girl’ facilitates a transformation at cellular level that means a boy actually becomes one.

Those parents are responsible for this disappointment but have the power to manage it so that their child understand that this is not about THEM, it is about the fact that for a few years they were mistakenly allowed to join an all-girls activity when in hindsight their parents should have signed them up to Scouts or Stage Coach. It does not need to create trauma - kids start and stop activities all the time, units close, new clubs open.

I want to have sympathy for the parents, but I haven’t any. Not the tiniest atom-sized spec of sympathy. They had access to the same wealth of information and resources that I had. I knew that my child was not ‘trans’ but was confused, scared of puberty, isolated during lockdown, influenced by SM, vulnerable to social trends, likely autistic - and so I set out to make sure they had a diagnosis and neutral counselling. It was hard, harder than affirming (AKA going along with it) - as two extensive, invasive social services investigations testify to - but it was the RIGHT thing to do. I would never have taken my child to a boys only setting or school and played along because I knew by reading the actual statistics that the suicide narrative was manipulative bollocks. As a parent it is your job to sift through the data, take advice from a range of sources, and protect your child from anything that can harm them.

The parents who are dealing with the fallout for GGUK’s decision have only themselves to blame - but they can mitigate this by telling their kids how bloody much they love them, how they love them precisely as they are - however they want to dress and whatever hobbies and activities they want to do - but they are boys and so they will need to look at other clubs and activities where mum will continue to help out and where other siblings and friends can also join them for moral support. A child is never too young to learn that the world does not revolve around them and that they can’t have everything they want. In fact, the earlier they learn that, the nicer and more well-rounded (dare I say more well-balanced?) an adult they are likely to become.

Sorry if that was harsh, but once I started typing, it just spewed out…

Although I do think the decision is right, I do have a lot of sympathy for the young children caught up in this because they've been let down by adults. They should have been supported to be the individuals they are.

Agreed, but we need to maintain objectivity- its a 90mins a week in term time activity with a few sleep overs if their unit leaders are willing. It’s not the end of the world as anyone knows it to do something else instead next term, is it?

Quite so.
The only children for whom this should be a really significant change - a positive one - are those girls who for whatever reason can only participate in single sex activities.

WI are at it now…

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/dec/03/womens-institute-no-longer-accept-trans-women-members-april#:~:text=On%20Wednesday%2C%20the%20WI%20will,formal%20membership%20to%20transgender%20women.

Absolutely, GG should be saying something like 'children who are gender questioning at a vulnerable stage in their life need to be supported by the correct organisations which goes beyond our capabilities at GG.'

Something simple that goes back to being the adults in the room.

Agree. It would have been much better for the child to have gone to a mixed sex provision where their identity would not have been any kind of an issue.

The few parents talking about how awful it is for their child to be denied (the use of girl children as props to create) his authentic self experience.... at what point will they put the girls ahead of their son? When he's thirteen and wants to undress in the PE changing rooms with them? When he wants to identify as a lesbian and require the lesbian girls 'learn to cope' with straight sex rather than disrupt his sense of self? He will eventually run up against reality and have to face he cannot be treated as a girl/woman in all ways - the sacrifice required by women will be eventually too great to keep on giving him. How kind is it to let this expectation and belief build instead of being who he is in mixed sex provisions?

It's mindblowing how low value these girls are in the world. Really mindblowing. Apparently no one's daughter is ever equally precious or even basically purposeful beyond how she can serve a boy with an identity to express.

Or they could say we are here to support all girls, ie female children, including those "who are gender questioning at a vulnerable stage in their life".

Also noting they have shut all commenting down on socials

Last two paragraphs of Spectator article published just after lunch today.
I'm going to assume Joanna Williams read this thread....

We should, at least, be grateful for one thing. Watching news readers tie themselves in knots as they try to cover stories of organisations coming to terms with biological reality is my new favourite pastime. Radio 4’s ten o’clock news, read last night by Neil Nunes, was a classic of the genre. ‘The Girlguiding organisation says that girls and young women who identify as trans will no longer be allowed to join as new members,’ enunciated Nunes.

But this is utter rot, of course. Girls and young women can carry on guiding all they like – presumably even the ones who ‘identify as trans’ and are, therefore, biological females convinced they are boys. It is boys and young men who can no longer join. This, it seems, is a truth too stark for the sensitive folk at the BBC to wrap their heads around.

(edited to correct Joanna's name)

I am waiting for the first post in our county Facebook group. Nothing so far

I'm seeing a lot of "influencers" promoting the petition against the decision.
Itvl seems based around boys and girls should be allowed to play together.

I'm wondering how far they actually think this. Would they be happy with 17yo biological boy getting changed with a 10yo girl? Or is it just they are thinking of 5yos doing coloring in together.

Hi,
My daughter no longer would like to go given this decision so my trans son would like to join, who was assigned female at birth would he be welcomed?

many thanks
a concerned parent

Hello there new username, assuming you are posting in good faith, wait till next week for clarification from GG HQ. HTH

Thanks, I know it’s an unpopular opinion and probably a protest by my son. As he’s likely not that interested but I thought I’d find out whether he’d even be accepted before someone hate crimes him or some crazy adult physically hurts him.

Of course. Trans boys and girls who identify as non binary have always been able to join due to our single sex exemption. We have had girls transition before and remain in Guides.

Please rest assured that no one in Guiding would ever hurt your child.
I believe Guides should be single sex for girls. I do not dislike or hate any trans identified person and I wish them well in their lives.

Sad that your daughter feels this way, but yes your trans son may now join (and in deed was permitted to all along - so it is terribly sad that they were discriminated against by GGUK in this way until now). All female sexed individuals may join, including those that identify as male or non binary. The right for them to do so is protected in law.

cant comment on GG but Scouts safeguarding is pretty clear on the not mixing the sections on overnights
but yes, I think the influencers are imagining 5 year olds

I was thinking more, for example, one of the big camps where there do water sports. All the children on those camps, if considered girls, would use the same facilities for changing at the water sports lake. Or the same showers, regardless of age.