A BIT of good news this week is that the Women’s Institute and Girlguiding will no longer accept trans-identifying males as members.
Most people understand that allowing men and boys to join single-sex groups for women and girls defeats the purpose of female-only groups, so it really is bizarre that the leaders of both organisations are so upset at having to announce they are now complying with the law.
The leaders of both the WI and Guides were at pains to describe their ‘regret’ at having to exclude males from their groups, saying publicly that they had been forced into it by the law following the Supreme Court judgement that a woman is based on biological sex.
Melissa Green, the chief executive of the WI, interviewed on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, announced the WI is launching new ‘sisterhood’ groups that men can join because, she said, ‘trans women are women’.
Women who identify as ‘trans men’ will continue to be allowed join WI because the policy is based on biological sex, and women who pretend to be men are still officially women.
Sounds confusing? Yes, it is — but gender ideology is based on inner ‘feelings’, so the fact this doesn’t make any sense appears not to worry Ms Green.
Throughout its 110-year history, the WI has existed to connect, support and empower women. Therefore, it seems extraordinary that its current leader is more concerned about the feelings of a tiny number of cross-dressing men than the majority of her organisation’s 200,000 members, many of whom are deeply uncomfortable with the presence of such men in their groups.
Green’s statement was particularly ill-advised given that the WI has long campaigned to raise awareness of violence against women and girls, so its leadership is well aware of the need for single-sex spaces for women.
To celebrate the WI’s centenary in 2015, Queen Elizabeth II said: ‘Women have been granted the vote, British women have climbed Everest for the first time and the country has elected its first female prime minister. The Women’s Institute has been a constant throughout, gathering women together, encouraging them to acquire new skills and nurturing unique talents.’
Just how far the WI has diverged from this vision was illustrated in 2021 when its magazine featured a trans-identified man, Petra Wenham, on the front cover.
Wenham, who decided to start living as a woman at 68 after decades of cross-dressing, was feted in the mainstream press for being ‘inspirational’ and was suddenly in demand as a ‘trans expert’. He has even delivered ‘transgender awareness’ educational training workshops to the NHS despite having a background as a cybersecurity consultant.
The press conveniently glossed over the distressing impact his transition had on his family, with his children and grandchildren still calling him ‘Dad’ and ‘Grandad’.
Meanwhile, Girlguiding has also announced that trans identifying boys can no longer join Rainbows, Brownies or Guides — with another handwringing statement on its website that leaders have taken this decision ‘with a heavy heart’. They would have ‘preferred not to make’ this decision, they groaned, because ‘this may be upsetting for members of our community’.
The organisation stressed that members will not face immediate changes, and most adult volunteer roles remain open to all. However, the move has sparked criticism from LGBTQ+ campaigners, who argue it undermines inclusion and harms vulnerable young people. Girlguiding said it will explore ways to support marginalised groups after the policy shift.
The announcement came after a parent alleged in a pre-action letter that the organisation’s trans-inclusion policy risked exposing ‘girls to harassment’.
The anonymous parent claimed that the policy created an ‘intimidating, hostile humiliating or offensive environment’ for girls by forcing them into ‘sharing toilets, showers or changing facilities with boys, contact sports with boys, all without their knowledge or consent’.
The Family Education Trust (FET) has long been warning that the Guides was not a safe organisation for girls because it openly promotes gender ideology to children and would not tell parents if a trans identifying boy was sharing overnight accommodation and bathrooms with girls.
While it’s good news that girls will now be safe from being forced to unknowingly share facilities with boys, it is concerning that adult volunteers will not be affected.
Even though Guides claims that some senior leadership positions are restricted to women, in 2021 a 58-year-old trans-identifying senior commissioner called Monica Sulley was revealed to have posted inappropriate images online of himself in bondage gear holding a powerful gun. Rather than sacking him immediately for breaking safeguarding rules, Girlguiding announced that he had voluntarily stepped down.
A teacher and mother of three was questioned under caution by Merseyside Police for sending two emails to Girlguiding raising safeguarding concerns about Sulley’s behaviour and warned she could be charged under the Malicious Communications Act.
She believes that Girlguiding had forwarded her emails to Sulley, who then reported her to the police along with several other women who had complained online about his appointment to a female-only role. At the end of the interview, she was told that her case would be sent to the CPS for consideration. Her duty solicitor, she reports, ‘said he had never been more baffled in his life’. When the solicitor asked the police officer whether it was necessary to proceed to the CPS, the police officer replied, she says, that the email was considered a ‘hate crime’.
Former Guides local leader Katie Alcock described how she was expelled from the organisation in 2018 for objecting to its trans inclusion policy on the grounds of safeguarding breaches.
The organisation first allowed boys who identify as girls to join Rainbows, Brownies, and Guides and Rangers in 2017 after passing new guidelines aimed at supporting ‘all girls and young women’, with the chief executive at the time, Julie Bentley, saying the rule change meant Girlguiding would ‘welcome any young person who self-identifies as a girl or young woman’.
FET pointed out in 2022 that affirming the ‘gender identity’ of children as young as five in its youngest members group, Rainbows, was a huge breach of safeguarding protocol, but its warnings fell on deaf ears, such is the influence of trans activist groups.
While it is certainly a step in the right direction that two of the largest voluntary organisations for women and girls have finally made the right decision to ban men and boys from becoming members, the fact that they have been so reluctant to do so demonstrates that they largely remain completely captured by gender ideology.
Both organisations have been heavily influenced by pro-trans organisations Stonewall and Gendered Intelligence. Despite updating its inclusion policy following this week’s announcement, Girlguides still links to both these organisations and promotes Pride activities.
Since the announcement, a Girlguiding volunteer has started a petition to force Girlguiding to ‘immediately reverse this exclusionary policy’, which at the time of writing has been signed by only 270 people. Bearing in mind that Girlguiding has more than 80,000 volunteer leaders and around 300,000 members across its groups, this would seem to imply that most supporters agree with its return to being a female-only organisation.
However, it’s not just Girl Guides leaders who are deluded. Multiple other voluntary organisations subscribe to gender ideology, including Scouts and Woodland Folk, another group for children.
Sulley was also a senior adviser for inclusion at Nottinghamshire Scouts, although he has since disappeared from this role.
While it is a mixed-sex organisation, girls and boys are supposed to have single-sex bathrooms and sleeping arrangements on residential camps, but this is not the case. Its policy is to allow boys to access female toilets and dorms based on gender identity rather than biological sex, openly ignoring the Supreme Court ruling.
Woodland Folk has stated that it ‘stands in solidarity with every trans child, young person and volunteer who faces exclusion from Girlguiding UK following the announcement on trans inclusion’.
Parents need to be wary of signing their children up to such groups, since their stance on gender ideology often trumps safeguarding policies.
While we are seeing organisations take a step in the right direction, the battle to rid society of dangerous gender ideology has only just begun. Women need to stand firm.
