UK's 'Girl Scout' Group Has Banned Trans Girls From Joining In Cruel New Low
“This Government must be held responsible for the long-lasting damage they are doing to a generation of LGBTQ+ people.”
The United Kingdom’s Girl Guiding—the United Kingdom’s member organization of what Americans know as the Girl Scouts—has banned transgender girls from joining, marking yet another cruel and creative way that anti-trans antagonists have found to dehumanize children.
This comes after months of pressure from right-wing gender extremists to pull the trigger on the ban. An April Supreme Court ruling in the United Kingdom, funded in large part by anti-trans activist J.K. Rowling, overturned equal rights and protections for trans women under the Equality Act (2010). By deciding that trans women were no longer women, the Supreme Court took away any legal protections otherwise afforded to other women and girls.
“Following April’s Supreme Court ruling relating to sex and gender, many organisations across the country have been facing complex decisions about what it means for girls and women and for the wider communities affected,” the announcement reads. It says that they consulted stakeholders and “legal experts” for “detailed considerations.”
“Trans girls and young women, and others not recorded female at birth, will no longer be able to join Girlguiding as new young members.”
Girl Guiding added that they would assemble a task force in the coming months to explore further legal options for “inclusion.” Transgender boys will still be allowed to join.
“Our thoughts are with the people who may be outed by their exclusion, or lose access to their vital social groups and support networks at a time when those are more important than ever,” said jane fae, an equal rights advocate with TransActual, in a press release today. “This Government must be held responsible for the long-lasting damage they are doing to a generation of LGBTQ+ people.”
For years, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts put decisions about how exactly to accommodate trans youth into the hands of individual countries or, in the case of the Girl Scouts of USA, local councils. However, the organization has largely been reported as accepting, with countless regions across the country unequivocally affirming trans kids’ right to join the Girl Scouts. The UK’s policy change does not govern chapters in the United States.
In 2018, Girl Guiding introduced a policy allowing trans girls to join, sparking backlash from the usual “gender critical” (aka anti-trans) provocateurs. The “gender critical” crowd argues, without evidence, that trans girls pose an inherent safety risk to the other girls.
The 2018 directive also stipulated that leaders were not allowed to out Girl Guides or group leaders as transgender. Proponents of “gender critical” ideology said this violated “informed parental consent.” They fought for policies that would essentially mandate the widespread disclosure of information about children’s medical history and genitalia to countless other members.
“It isn’t surprising that when you speak to parents of trans girls, they feel desperately afraid for their children,” wrote Susie Green, a parent of a trans Girl Guide, nearly a decade ago in The Guardian.
“One parent talked about how she felt that her daughter couldn’t attend camp with her friends because of how the media depicted transgender girls as a danger to others,” Green continued. “By having a body that she feels does not reflect who she is, she is now branded a potential predator.”
The UK Supreme Court ruling, in tandem with anti-trans court rulings here in the United States, has supercharged efforts to essentially erase trans people from public life—from prisons to swimming pools, locker rooms and bathrooms, and athletics and other competitions (like video games, chess and poker).
On Wednesday, Dec. 3, the Women’s Institute of the United Kingdom—the largest women’s organisation in the country—also said it will begin purging trans women from its ranks, overturning a 40-year-old policy of equality and inclusion.
“Gender critical” ideology is championed by Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate and extremist groups such as Genspect, whose members push anti-trans conversion therapies.
“These are children,” Girl Guide parent Susan Green wrote back in 2018, a reminder worth repeating today. “Little girls who just want to be respected for [who] they are, and to spend time with their friends.”
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Once again, the cruelty is the point. My heart goes out to these innocent girls.
What gets me is watching all these groups roll over and then act like they were forced to do this. It is a choice to expel trans people instead of fight for us.