Say what you like about transgender activists, but they are certainly persistent. Legal judgements, institutional rule changes and moral pressure count for nothing; such is their determination to get men into women’s spaces.
Girlguiding HQ had, with arms twisted, accepted the Supreme Court ruling. But there was a problem
Take the Girl Guides. For anyone with a scrap of common sense, or even a vague familiarity with the English language, the clue is in the name. This is an organisation for girls. Female children, to be precise. Or at least, it always used to be.
Tragically, back in 2018, a year historians might well come to regard as kicking off the ‘peak woke’ era, Girlguiding UK introduced a ‘trans-inclusive diversity policy’. Suddenly, a man in a dress could call himself Brown Owl and organise activities for young girls. Or he could don a blue tracksuit, become a Guide Leader, and take teenage girls off to camp.
At the time, head office sought to reassure concerned parents: ‘simply being transgender does not make someone more of a safeguarding risk than any other person’. Although even back then, there was evidence to suggest that transgender women might commit crimes, including violent crime, at a rate comparable to males, not females. But it wasn’t just leaders; Girlguiding UK changed the rules to allow transgender girls – aka boys – to join the Brownies and Guides. Teenage girls were put in a position where they could be forced to share tents, toilets and changing rooms with adolescent boys. ‘We are a young people’s organisation,’ the then-chief guide said. Again, it’s the language that gives the game away: ‘girls’ were being erased.
The Chief Guide continued: ‘Our focus has been, and will remain, providing our young members with opportunities to learn, grow and discover in a fun, safe, inclusive and legally compliant way.’ But then the law changed. In April 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that, for the purposes of the Equality Act, ‘woman’ refers to biological sex, not gender identity. By December last year, Girlguiding UK was under pressure to respond. With the publication of a statement declaring ‘trans girls and young women, and others not recorded female at birth, will no longer be able to join Girlguiding as new young members,’ it seemed as if sanity had been restored.
It appeared that Girlguiding HQ had, with arms twisted, accepted the Supreme Court ruling. But there was a problem. The very same people who had pledged allegiance to diversity, equity and trans-inclusivity remained in charge. Their belief that ‘trans women are women’ had not changed. And the men-who-think-they-are-women who had been admitted remained firmly in place. Thus it was that the female-only ruling was issued with tearful laments: it was a ‘difficult decision’ and one taken with a ‘heavy heart’. ‘We know that this may be upsetting for members of our community,’ the association’s leaders said.
And so the scene was set, not for the quiet and dignified departure of the few boys and men who had, in the intervening years, snuck into the Guides, but for one almighty row.
Last week, it was announced that the new policy would, indeed, be put into practice and transgender girls must leave Girlguiding groups by September. Notice is being given now, we learnt, in order to give ‘affected members and their families time to plan, prepare, access support, and decide when – between now and September – they feel ready to leave’. Again, it is clear that sympathy and consideration are directed at the boys and men, not the girls and women leaders who had been pushed out of the Guides over the previous eight years.
These apologetic statements embolden transgender activists. A splinter group has now emerged within the Guides that is seeking to have the ban on trans boys overturned. Guiders Against Trans Exclusion (Gate) has been organising protests and encouraging members to write to politicians to complain about the ruling. It wants Guiders to show they oppose the ban by wearing the Guide’s Promise badge upside down, changing their social media profile pictures to show support for trans allies, and wearing a trans pride neckerchief. Leaders of units for girls as young as five, known as Rainbows, have bought ‘against trans exclusion’ badges for their young members to wear.
Brownie leaders now report that the organisation has become ‘an increasingly hostile environment’. How sad. Transgender activists will, it seems, stop at nothing. They want to destroy any possibility for young girls to have a female-only space. More than this, they are determined to make it clear to girls that their needs and wants must come second to the desires of boys and men. GATE talks of inclusivity, but its real message is that when boys want to join in, girls must step back and quietly give way.
A year ago, Girlguiding UK should have issued a robust statement in defence of women and girls instead of a snivelling apology and notice of a protracted 18-month long withdrawal period for men to ‘access support’ for having to leave a female-only organisation. If they had, Girl Guides might have been spared its current sectarian war.
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