Trans girls must leave Girlguiding for good by September under new ruling

Trans girls must leave Girlguiding by September, following a Supreme Court ruling that women are defined by biological sex.

Girlguiding, the British equivalent of the Girl Scouts in the US, said it stands with the LGBTQ+ community despite enforcing the ban on trans youth.

It added: ‘We must operate lawfully and follow our governing charity documents, which affect how our membership eligibility is defined.

‘Although living by our values cannot change our legal responsibilities, it does shape how we treat everyone, how we speak about people, the culture we create, and the future we’re working towards.’

Guidance says that the ban will apply to all current trans girls and young women, as well as preventing them from volunteering in women-only roles.

They will have to leave the organisation by September 6.

Advocacy group Trans+ Solidarity Alliance told Metro: ‘Inclusive organisations being bullied into excluding people against their will is a profound failure of this government to live up to its promises to the trans community.

‘This news will be heartbreaking for the children and volunteer leaders that hold Girlguiding together, to fix a problem that doesn’t exist without anti-trans law.’

Girlguiding, sometimes called the Girl Guides, first announced the ban in December.

The organisation said it had received legal advice warning that accepting trans girls and women could violate the Equality Act 2010.

A court ruled last year that ‘women’ under the anti-discrimination law are defined by their ‘biological sex’, a phrase that does not appear in the law.

Justices insisted in April that the ruling should not be seen as ‘a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another’.

Yet trans rights campaigners and human rights groups have said the ruling is being wielded to exclude and marginalise trans people.

Single-sex spaces – such as toilets or changing rooms – have been at the center of this, with providers now trying to toe the line of equality law.

Girlguiding says on its website that it is ‘by girls, for girls, powered by volunteers’ and helps ‘all girls know they can do anything’.

It runs groups for ages four to 18: Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers.

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